


Cradle and All

by BirdOfHermes



Series: Under Pressure [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki (Marvel), Avenger Reader (Marvel), Avengers Family, Babysitting, Children, Clone Sex, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Drunk Sex, Drunken Flirting, Drunken Kissing, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Handcuffs, Light Angst, Loki (Marvel) Feels, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Orphans, Parenthood, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Pregnancy, Sweet, Thor (Marvel) is Not Stupid, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Threesome - F/M/M, Time Skips, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trickster Loki (Marvel), Wedding Fluff, Wedding Night, Wedding Planning, Wedding Rings, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:14:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 45,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22311577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdOfHermes/pseuds/BirdOfHermes
Summary: Thor and Valkyrie's two-and-a-half year old, Aria, needs a babysitter for a week. Frosty and Loki are the last people on Earth who think they're qualified for the job, but through necessity, it's theirs. However, spending time with her opens up a whole new can of worms and maybe it's actually a good thing.Part of the "Under Pressure" Loki/Reader series. Takes place a few years after "Stood Up."
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Thor (Marvel), Loki/Original Female Character, Loki/Reader
Series: Under Pressure [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1250417
Comments: 118
Kudos: 402





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RueBerries](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RueBerries/gifts).



> This fic is for BellezzaRue, who requested a Loki/Reader babyfic. I figured since we touched briefly on kids in "Gamble" that this was a good place to go for Frosty and Loki, so hopefully you enjoy it. 
> 
> But lie to me anyway if you don't.
> 
> Here we go.

Many things had changed over the last few years, but one thing that thankfully hadn’t was the God of Mischief’s ability to blow my mind with sex.

“Loki…damn you…would you just…mm…goddammit, Loki, I need to do the laundry!” Most of those broken phrases came out in a breathless slur as I lay underneath the nefarious demigod, my legs held in place by his forearms, his dress shirt open to expose all that lovely pale skin, his pants unbuckled enough to allow that monstrous cock to plunge into me. He’d cornered me after returning home from an outing. I’d tried valiantly to fuss at him enough to dissuade him, but he was hornier than his helmet right now and there wasn’t much I could do about it.

“Yes,” he hissed, drawing out the S-sound as he rolled his hips in between thrusts just to make me moan harder. “I expect you will after I am done with you, my little pet.”

He let me go enough to scoop me from the edge of the bed and plop me into the pillows at the head of the mattress. The movement jostled me so much that my inner walls clenched around him. Loki growled and immediately lunged up the length of my body, fucking me in earnest now that he had more room. My head rolled back as the pleasure sharpened to a fine point inside me and the ache he’d started turned up to deafening levels. “Loki, _fucking hell._ ”

“I missed you,” he wheedled in my ear, sneaking a hand underneath my oversized t-shirt to fondle a breast. “Mm, I missed this cunt.”

“You fucked me last night, you impossible bastard,” I whined, stifling a moan as he pushed the bra aside enough to tweak my nipple. “Aren’t you ever going to get tired of me?”

Loki chuckled and kissed me, his blue-green eyes glittering. “Not you, darling. Never you.”

He kissed past my lips to my chin, my throat, the weak spot beneath my ear. “And certainly not this sweet, wet little cunt. You make me crave it like an addict. Every day I wake by your side, I simply want more.”

A deep shudder spilled down my body at his words. He must have felt it, for he purred and drove himself deeper into me, picking up speed. “Will you give me more, sweetheart? More of you? I want it all. Everything you have to offer.”

“Dammit, Loki,” I whimpered, barely keeping up with him from how amazing he made me feel between those sumptuous strokes and his wicked words. I couldn’t ground myself enough, so I sunk my nails into his chest and drew them down his torso. Loki loved it when I did that, I’d come to find, so at least I could even the odds in my favor. I’d hoped to distract him, but alas, no such luck. He slid his hand down my stomach and spread it out over my pelvis, his palm flat to my clit, pressing down just enough to give me fluttering sensations.

“Fuck! Loki!” I writhed beneath him, pushing up against his hand, desperate for more friction. My frantic movements made my legs spread wider and he took full advantage, fucking into me as quickly as possible, hitting my spot.

“Surrender,” he whispered in my ear. “You’re at your limit, my darling.”

He let his thumb reach down just enough to lightly stroke my clit and I fell apart in seconds, arching off the bed from the sheer strength of my orgasm. Loki exhaled in delight and lowered his gaze between our bodies, greedily watching me flex around his cock like a madwoman. I reached up enough to claw at his flat, hard shoulder blades beneath the white dress shirt, sinking my teeth into his shoulder as I rode out the climax. He shivered and slowed his pace to let me down easy, holding off on his own release as he often did since he wanted me fucked at least twice, sometimes thrice, for the sake of his own satisfaction. I collapsed on the bed, weak-kneed, panting, frustrated as I felt him hard where he was still buried inside me.

And he’d been right, the bastard. I’d definitely have to do the laundry now.

“Fuck you,” I mumbled half-heartedly, even as my hips wouldn’t stop gyrating against his pelvis, creating lovely little whirlpools of pleasure across my sweaty skin. He made me so mad but damn it all if I didn’t love to fuck him anyway. “I can’t believe you sometimes. It wouldn’t be that much of a chore to fuck me around bedtime when you know I’ll be able to shower when I want to.”

Loki let out a low laugh and kissed my nose. “I have to keep you on your toes, pet. Lest you worry that my interest in you is waning over the years.”

I snorted softly. “Not likely since you deem it necessary to fuck me every 12 hours.”

He pursed his lips. “Is that a bad thing?”

“No, but just so you know, that’s not how Midgardians do usually. It’s more a once or twice per week thing with couples unless they’re in the honeymoon phase.”

He clucked his tongue. “Then I do not envy you for falling in love with a god, even if means that you must do your laundry far more often.”

I laughed then, since he was right. I’d invested in about three times as many sheets being with him. “Lucky me.”

I kissed him as I continued roving my nails over his back and chest, listening to the pleased noises that escaped him. He had interrupted my schedule, but I’d still have enough time to run errands anyway, assuming nothing else got in the way.

And, as if on cue, my cell phone rang.

I turned my head to frown at the nightstand. “Oh, it’s like eight o’clock in the morning, who the fuck is even calling me?”

I listened to the ringtone then. “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin. “Oh, it’s Thor.”

Loki rolled his eyes and set about taking off his shirt and pants. “The fool will have to wait until I have had my fill of you.”

I sighed. “Loki, he’s a father now. What if it’s about Aria?”

“FRIDAY would have alerted us if it were about the child,” he said impatiently, kissing my throat. “Ignore it.”

The phone went silent. And then rang again.

“Loki—”

He glared down at me. “Do not answer that call.”

My phone beeped and then Siri’s voice said, “Answering call.”

“No!” I cried, snatching up the phone to try to cancel it, but the stupid automated wannabe A.I. had already answered the call. Thor’s chipper voice boomed in my ear. “Good morning, my little muffin! How are you?”

I cringed, holding completely still under Loki, who scowled. “Great. Look, sweetie, can I call you back?”

“Oh, this will just take a second. I need to ask a favor.”

“Thor—”

“The missus and I just scored an incredible trip to South Africa, courtesy of some company who wants to entice us to endorse their product. Of course we’re not going to do it, but the trip is ours regardless. It’s seven days, all expenses paid, and we’d really like to go, but unfortunately the whole team is off the clock next week.”

I frowned. “Meaning what?”

“We need someone to watch Aria.”

I frowned. “You want me to babysit? Me?”

“Well, you and Loki, yes. I certainly think you’re responsible enough.”

I could tell Loki could hear the call. He gave me the evilest serpentine grin imaginable and very slowly rotated his hips while he was still inside me. I clapped a hand over my mouth, just barely catching the shriek in time for Thor not to hear it. Loki chuckled and planted his hands on either side of me, staring down with ill intent as he started thrusting again. I smacked him in the shoulder, glaring daggers, mouthing for him to knock it off. He just grinned even wider and slipped his hands under my thighs to hold me in place. His cock slipped deeper still and I fought every single instinct to moan before turning back towards the phone.

“Uh, that’s, uh, not a good idea,” I told Thor, measuring every breath as Loki fucked into me with devastating precision. “I-I don’t, um, really know much about kids.”

“Nonsense,” Thor said cheerily. “You’ll do fine. I’ve seen you with her and you’re great. So is Loki, though he pretends as if he isn’t. He’d be a good father if he put his mind to it, after all.”

Loki blinked at my phone, apparently perplexed, even stopping mid-thrust to do so, which granted me a brief respite. “Look, I appreciate it, but you should just hire a sitter.”

“My daughter can pick up a minivan with one hand,” Thor reminded me.

“Oh,” I said. “Fuck. Right. I forgot she’s also a tiny immortal demigod too.”

I bit my lip as Loki resumed his meddlesome movements. It took me a second to speak without a clear tremble in my voice. “I-I guess I can watch her, as long as you teach me how first.”

“Great!” he said. “Thank you so much, my sweet. I’ll buy you dinner and we can go over everything.”

“Fantastic,” I said through clenched teeth, resisting with all my might the pull of a second orgasm.

He paused. “Goodness, are you alright? You sound winded.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I groaned. “Bye, Thor.”

I hung up before hearing his goodbye and then tried to punch my boyfriend. Loki laughed and caught my arms easily, holding them down. “You jerk!”

“Where is your sense of fun, darling?” he teased. “You did rather well, all things considered.”

“You’re dead meat as soon as you let me up,” I growled, twisting in vain. “I’m gonna freeze your nostrils shut.”

“Oh, dear,” he said. “I suppose that means I should never let you out of this bed.”

“Shut up, you—”

He kissed me, dragging my arms down to my sides and holding them there, his lean frame molding against me just the way I liked. I bit his lip hard enough to bruise a normal man, unable to stop the hungry moan from escaping into his mouth as he doubled the speed of his thrusts. I was unbelievably, frustratingly wet from being both mad and restrained. It didn’t take long.

“Fuck you,” I whispered furiously, even as I wrapped my legs around his waist. “Stupid jerk.”

He laughed. “You always keep it so interesting, don’t you, darling?”

Loki hit just the right spot and we both catapulted over the edge. He ground his pelvis into me, exhaling hotly against my slightly swollen lips, elated as his cock spilled into me again and again. “Fuck me indeed, darling.”

“You’re going to pay for this in the worst sort of way,” I insisted, though I couldn’t help nuzzling my face against his cheek.

“I’d expect nothing less from you.”

“As long as you know.” I bit his ear lobe lightly and watched as he shivered again. “Now get off me. We have to learn how to babysit.”

* * *

To be completely honest, I wasn’t a fan of kids. I just wasn’t. I had grown up in an orphanage feeling alone and scared and unwanted. Other kids got adopted. Other kids became lifelong friends with each other. I managed. Nothing more, nothing less. No family meant that by the time I left, I didn’t see another kid again for the most part.

That being said, Aria was great.

Aria was two and a half years old. She was also sweeter than peaches. She had her mother’s golden-brown skin and dark hair, but Thor’s blue eyes and sunny smile. She also had every single Avenger in her back pocket. All of them loved her to pieces and spoiled her rotten at every available opportunity. Not even Loki was immune, though he tended to keep his distance if he could help it, as he was a little unsure about small children. However, he never turned her away when she’d totter over to him and curl her little fingers, begging him to pick her up. He’d dutifully stoop down and collect the child, holding her up while she giggled and hugged him affectionately, dubbing him, “Unca Loki!” She loved to climb onto the couch during the day and fall asleep against his chest or in his lap and he didn’t seem to mind.

She was no different with me. I showed her different tricks with my ice magic and she was always delighted, showing her parents the new trinkets I’d made her and pouting when they reminded her they’d eventually melt and she couldn’t put them in her room. Aria was also unselfish, though. She rarely had temper tantrums and she loved learning about new things, which the Avengers were eager to teach her anytime she came around. She took to Peter Parker immediately, but then again, so did everyone. I’d sometimes look up to see Aria on his shoulders, pointing and shouting, “Go, horsey, go!” Peter would then whinny convincingly and charge forward, making clop-clop noises and sending me into a gigglefit.

But I was still pretty nervous about being responsible for her on my own.

Mind you, Loki did agree to help out. He thought it would be unfair to leave me alone in this, though he had insisted on not being asked to babysit in the past. I felt a little better knowing he might be able to pick up some slack or fill in some knowledge gaps I had about children.

Thor took me out to get a steak at a local diner and got right down to business after giving me his usual bear hug of a greeting. “Do not worry, sweet lady. I promise you will do great.”

“Who says I’m worried?” I flipped my menu open even though I knew I’d get the same thing I always got. Thor reached out and smoothed his thumb between my eyebrows, his smile fond but teasing.

“You are frowning.”

“Fine, fine,” I sighed, tossing the menu down. “I’m terrified. She’s a tiny, adorable, precious baby. Do you know how many ways I can screw this up?”

“It’s okay to be unsure. It’s not like I just woke up a perfect father. You just adapt.”

I raked my hair back and chewed my lip. “And that’s all it takes?”

“Yes, my dear,” he said sincerely. “Children give what they get. They feed off of your energy. They will test you, but as long as you listen to them and find out what they need, there is nothing to fear. I trust you with my life every time we approach the battlefield to protect this planet. How can you think for an instant that I’d ask you to watch my little flower if I did not trust that you would be able to do it?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Well, you did say the rest of the team was occupied.”

Thor rolled his lone blue eye. “Oh, balderdash, my lady. You are not a last resort. If I had any doubts, then I’d have not accepted the trip and stayed to watch her. I trust you. End of story.”

I relaxed just a little. Thor’s faith in me worked wonders for my confidence. “Okay. Tell me about her.”

Over the next hour, and in between a smorgasbord of appetizers, Thor reinforced things I already knew about her, but then went into further details. Like a regular person, Aria was complicated. Right now, he’d been teaching her to learn her own strength, since she went through a few hundred Midgardian toys a month. They’d had some of the citizens of Asgard make toys that would last for her, but she still enjoyed the toys on Earth just as much, so it was a bit of a challenge keeping up with her.

“What if she asks me a question I don’t know the answer to? Should I lie?”

“No, no,” he said. “It’s okay to tell her you aren’t sure. She won’t be upset. She’ll probably try to help you find an answer.”

“Yeah, she’s a smart little thing,” I agreed. “I hope I can maybe teach her some things. I don’t want her to be bored and watching TV all day long.”

“She knows she can only watch it for part of the day. She’ll be actively looking for things to do, so I’ve made a list of our most frequent hangouts. Trust me, as long as you’re engaged, she’s engaged.” He touched my hand. “You are a lovely, fun, interesting woman, my lady. She will love you, if you let her.”

My stupid eyes got misty. I cleared my throat and nodded. “Okay. I’ll do my best. What about your brother?”

Thor snorted. “Oh, Loki will try his hardest to remain distant, but he will love her and vice versa. She often asks if she can stay the night at your place, but I told her you’re still not quite ready yet.”

Oh, wow. What a kid. I didn’t know she liked us that much already. “Well, now I feel bad. I should have offered sooner.”

“No, please don’t,” he insisted. “I didn’t want to rush you considering you and Loki haven’t seemed interested. Children are quite the commitment. You two are entirely devoted to each other and I wouldn’t want to rush you into something you aren’t prepared for yet.”

Yet. I gulped. “So…you think Loki and I…might have a kid someday?”

Thor gave me a calm, soft look. “It does not matter what I think. It matters what you think. Have you spoken to him about it?”

I fiddled with my napkin. “N-Not in so many words.”

“Easy,” he murmured. “We do not have to talk about it if it makes you nervous, my lady.”

“I’m not…” I took a deep breath. “I’m not sure we can handle getting through that conversation just yet. We touched on it briefly back when I got shot at the Hydra base. It hasn’t been revisited since. We sort of dance around the issue. We have since Aria was born.”

“Do you want to talk to him about it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know yet. I’m worried we won’t be on the same page.”

“Yes, that’s awful scary, isn’t it? Still, I think it would be good once you feel more comfortable to ask him. I think you’d both be amazing parents. You are warm and kind. He is protective and thoughtful. I think you’ll both surprise each other when the time comes to talk it over.”

I smiled at him and swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Thank you, Thor. Really.”

He smiled right back at me. “Always, my lady.”

Thor lifted his menu. “Now then, what’s the biggest piece of meat on this menu and how do I order six of them?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki give their first day of babysitting a go.

_Spunky knows she can save the world in her own little way_

_Turning in her old uniform_

_'Cause you know, it really didn't pay_

_It's a free for all, free for all, free for all_

_It's a free for all, you and me_

_I walk through the world with your name on my tongue_

_And your picture etched on my screen_

_-"Spunky" by Eels_

“Is there enough juice? Is the iPad charged? Did I shut the bathroom door? Is there any loose change on the rug? Should I change into something else?”

Loki had been patiently watching me zip back and forth all over my apartment until finally he slipped his condor arms around me and held me in one spot.

“Sweetling,” he said in a calm, but strained tone. “It will be fine. You have made every provision imaginable to prepare the apartment for the child. Please relax.”

I chewed my nail and sent a worried glance out over the apartment. “You think so?”

“Yes, my darling,” he said, a laugh in his throat as he kissed my temple. “It’s more than sufficient. Thor and Brunhilde have told you every detail they can about her, so you are more than ready.”

I exhaled and pressed my forehead against his chest, feeling the light beat of his heart and calming as I listened to its steady rhythm. No need to panic. She was just a baby. Just a sweet little baby who wanted to play with her aunt and uncle for a week.

Loki rubbed my back, my shoulders, settling his chin on the crown of my head. “You are still so adorable sometimes, you know.”

“I am not,” I protested weakly, wrapping my arms around him and melting into his familiar embrace.

“My thoughtful girl,” he mused. “You are braver than you know.”

I tried not to smile bashfully. I failed. “Oh, stuff it, serpent.”

He chuckled and kissed the top of my head just as FRIDAY spoke. “Miss, your guests have arrived.”

“Thanks, FRIDAY.” Loki and I walked over and opened the door to find the Odinson family waiting. Aria stood between Thor and Val, immediately bursting into a smile when she saw us, bouncing on her little heels in excitement. “Auntie, auntie! It’s me!”

“It is!” I said, throwing my arms open and then scooping her up. “Hello, pretty girl!”

She giggled and hugged me. I kissed her cheek and then stepped to one side, greeting her parents. Thor had a large duffel bag with various items over one shoulder while Val had Aria’s crib, neatly collapsed, under one arm. They’d been transitioning her into a bed and he’d told me it would depend on how comfortable she felt if she’d want to sleep in her crib or in bed with us. I’d told them it was fine either way, since I’d upgraded to a King-size long ago so Loki could stretch his giant frame out with ease.

“Here you are,” Thor said to Loki, handing him the bag. “Everything you need should be there, but don’t hesitate to ask if you think of something we may have missed.”

“When is your flight?” Loki asked.

“We’re headed to the airport now, but it doesn’t leave until this afternoon. We wanted to get a headstart since this is New York, after all. We’ll text you both when we land. If you need anything at all—”

“I assure you it won’t be necessary,” Loki said. “Make merry. Enjoy yourselves.”

“Never thought I’d see the day,” Val snorted, smirking at him.

“Oh, I am delighted to be rid of you for any reason, Valkyrie,” he deadpanned, but the twinkle in his eyes gave him away. She punched him lightly and leaned in to kiss her daughter’s cheek.

“Be a good girl for Mummy while I’m gone,” she said, smiling warmly at the child. “Don’t let your uncle teach you any tricks.”

Aria shook her head. “No tricks!”

“Just treats,” Loki finished, earning himself a glare from Val.

Thor chuckled and kissed his daughter as well. “I love you, little flower. Have fun.”

“Bye-bye, Mommy! Bye-bye, Daddy!”

They waved and headed out the door. They’d already given her breakfast, so I carried her to the couch and sat. Loki did so as well on her other side. “Okay, Aria, what should we do first?”

Aria crinkled her nose in thought. “Tea party?”

“Excellent idea,” I said. “Let’s go get your tea set.”

We cleared off the coffee table and set out her little tea set. The ladies of Asgard had kindly made her a miniature version of what they had once served in the palace, so it was all real, durable finely made cups and saucers with a gorgeous clay pot. The designs were hand-painted, depicting different stages of Val’s pregnancy where they were decorating the baby’s room or planting flowers in Aria’s garden at their house.

After setting the table, we placed some of her stuffed animals in their spots and then took our seats. Aria “poured” everyone a cup and she told us each of our guests names. Thor had explained that Asgardian children developed faster than children on Earth, so while she was toddler-sized, she understood things on about the level of a four-year-old. She spoke in short, but clear sentences. Our conversation centered on the backstory of her companions, her favorite kind of tea—unicorn cotton candy tea, if you’re curious—and her most recent adventures in the land of make-believe.

While the tea wasn’t real, we did give her some grapes and animal crackers for a snack and then it was time to head to Central Park. Aria loved to be outdoors, much like her father. She’d been to the park plenty of times, exploring a new section each time, according to her parents. We’d lucked out to have a nice, cool day. Aria liked being carried, but not through the park, since she liked to be able to walk over to things—mostly dogs, but who could blame her—and pick flowers. She was extremely inquisitive, pointing and asking what things were.

We stopped for lunch in the afternoon and then Loki couldn’t resist buying her ice cream, which I fussed at him for, but couldn’t resist either. After all, it was sunny out and others kids had ice cream cones too. We had to play fair.

“Have you ever been on a carriage ride?” I asked Aria, pointing as we rounded the corner near where one of the nicer ones had set up shop.

“Ooh, I wanna go, I wanna go!” she said, tugging at my hand, her cheeks still a little smeared with vanilla ice cream. I knelt and wiped her face with a napkin, glancing up at Loki. “You up for it?”

“Certainly,” he said, though I could tell he was scrutinizing the upkeep of the horse and carriage from afar. He’d ridden horseback often on Asgard, so he’d definitely know if anything was out of order. “Do you know how much it—”

He paused as someone tapped him on the shoulder. Loki turned.

And an old man threw his coffee right into Loki’s face.

My jaw dropped.

Loki froze, too stunned to move, the dark liquid dripping down from his hair and onto his coat. The old man stood there with an ugly sneer on his face, his voice a growl as he spat out, “That was for New York.”

Cold fury swept through me. I scooped Aria up and put her on my hip, closing my fingers around Loki’s wrist. His posture belied just how angry he’d gotten, but he just stood there as still as a statue, likely because he wanted to rip the man in half with his bare hands. I tugged harder and Loki finally let me move him behind me. I stared at the old man, knowing that my eyes had already gone completely white, no pupil visible, as my ice magic bubbled up from inside me. My magic was directly related to my mood, and nothing made it appear faster than anger.

“Move. Away.” Icy vapor spilled out of my mouth after both words.

The old man spat at my feet. “You’re no better than he is, whore.”

Behind me, I heard the gravel shift. I held out my free arm and Loki’s chest bumped into it. I didn’t turn. I just said his name once, still and quiet. _“Loki.”_

I heard his ragged breath and felt his entire body straining not to shove me and Aria out of the way. He didn’t charge the old man, but I knew he wanted to with every fiber of his being. So did I.

“There,” I said to the man. “You got it out of your system. Now walk away.”

He sneered at both of us, ignoring the scared baby girl curled against my neck entirely, and stomped off in the opposite direction. I watched him go until he disappeared from sight and then let out a slow breath, pulling my magic back inside my chest to let it go dormant once again. I kissed Aria’s forehead and spoke gently. “You okay, pookums?”

“Yes,” she said in a tiny voice.

“Good girl.”

I faced Loki. He was still glaring in the old man’s direction, breathing too hard and too fast, his hands curled into claws. I was proud of him, actually. A few years ago, he’d have drawn his knives and threatened the old bastard.

“Look at me,” I said, my tone as soothing as I could make it. “Look at me, Loki of Asgard.”

Slowly, he pulled his gaze down to meet mine. “It’s alright. I’m not hurt. Aria’s not hurt. Breathe. Come back to me.”

He clenched his jaw, but slowly, I saw him contain his rage. His expression slipped into something remote and distant as he idly waved his hand so that all traces of the spilled coffee evaporated.

“Do you want to go home?” I asked sincerely.

“No,” he ground out. “The child is scared. Let us take her on the carriage ride.”

“Okay.”

We continued past the worried onlookers to the carriage and paid for a ride. Aria stayed in my lap, still quiet, but as we rode, she calmed down. She began looking about at the trees and fountains and birds surrounding us, returning to a better mood. However, her curiosity finally reared its head after a while.

“Why did that man do that, Unca Loki?” she asked, blinking up with those big blue eyes.

Loki took a long, deep breath. “Some years ago, I did bad things here on Midgard. People were angry and still are. They have every right to be.”

I tensed, but didn’t interrupt. He was right. He had done unforgivable things and while the public at large had taken him at his word when the Avengers vouched for him in the public eye, there were still those who wanted him dead or imprisoned for his crimes. I understood the idea behind that mentality, but it didn’t make me any less furious to see someone treat him that way in front of me.

“Oh,” Aria said. “But you’re not bad.”

“Not anymore,” he said softly.

“I love you, Unca Loki. You’re good.” She held his hand and gave him a fierce look. “Good Unca Loki.”

His shoulders shook with exhausted, but genuine laughter. He smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. “Thank you, Aria.”

We salvaged the rest of the day trip in New York by taking her to a Build A Bear workshop, then dinner, and then we returned to the Avengers compound. I gave her a bath and turned on a Disney movie for her, heading into the bedroom where Loki had just showered and changed into his clothes for the evening.

I moved quietly towards him where he stood at the dresser, hunting for a shirt. I wrapped my arms around him and molded myself into his back, kissing the sensitive spot under his shoulder blade. He stilled, but said nothing.

“I love you,” I whispered, pressing my cheek to his warm, bare skin. “I love you so much, Loki.”

“And I, you,” he murmured.

I pretended there weren’t tears in my eyes, but I knew there were. It was part of why I didn’t want him looking at me right now. He’d held it together so well, but I knew the park incident bothered him as badly as it bothered me, if not more.

“It’s alright,” he said. “We anticipated that this would happen after deciding to stay on Midgard, darling.”

“I don’t care,” I whispered. “I wanted to kick his wrinkled ass anyway.”

Loki let out a little laugh. “I believe that would have been quite the spectacle, a known member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes beating an elderly man within an inch of his life.”

“It doesn’t change what you did. That’s why I’m so angry. Being ugly to you didn’t do anything but scare Aria. He frightened an innocent child over something none of us could change. I’m just so…”

Loki finally turned and tipped my chin up. “Do not shed tears for me. Aria is strong. She will be fine. She will understand someday why he did what he did. I am who I am. I cannot change what I have done. I ask no forgiveness from anyone, for I do not deserve it. I have made peace with it.”

“I know. But you’ve done so much good since then, Loki. I hate thinking that you still see yourself as a monster.”

He smiled. “You would not love a monster. Thus, I know I am not one. It is as simple as that, pet.”

Loki kissed me. It was soft and tender and heartfelt. “Thank you for protecting me, my goddess.”

I squeezed him to me for a second. “Always, my prince.”

We joined Aria in the den, finished watching _Cinderella_ with her, and then we asked if she’d like to sleep in her crib or with us. She happily ambled her way into our bedroom and flung herself on a pillow in the middle of the bed. We slid in next to her on either side after plugging in her nightlight, and said good night to each other.

Fun fact: Aria kicks in her sleep.

But we made it through the night anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all. Let me tell you. I caught some fuckin' feels writing that. Damn, I must be getting soft. I hope you hoes appreciate what I go through for you. xD


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a stunning development between Frosty and Loki.

Mercifully, the rest of our week with Aria was without incident.

In fact, it was…lovely. Absolutely lovely.

For one, I’d been worried of many things as an adult being responsible for a child and it turned out that I didn’t need to worry about certain things. Aria had beats and rhythms to her personality. She knew her routines well enough to tell us and she always made every thought in her little mind known, so neither Loki nor I ever had to guess about anything. She did fuss and cry a few times, and we learned how to talk her down when she became upset.

One thing I loved was watching Loki teach her magic tricks. Aria loved watching him perform illusions, whether with real magic or simply optical illusions. She was too small to have much magic yet, but Loki told me he could sense that her magic had already begun to spark. It would take a while to manifest and it was so cute how excited he was about having a niece who might take after him. Loki’s magic had always been important to him as a gift from Frigga. She had taught him all he knew. It had been one the things that kept them so close over the years.

By the time the week ended and Thor and Val said they were on their way home from the airport, Loki and I were tuckered out but sad to relinquish our tiny companion. Aria made us promise to hold weekly tea parties at the apartment and we happily agreed. I could see why Thor and Val wanted a family, though. There had been a moment midway through the week when I’d come out of my shower to find Loki and Aria passed out on the couch. She had her head on his chest, her thumb in her mouth, snoozing peacefully. Loki’s expression was the calmest I’d ever seen it, one arm protectively keeping the girl in place as they slept. It had brought tears to my eyes in a sudden strange wave of fondness. To think he’d been through so much and yet here he was now, a man protecting his kin, feeling affection and love after so many years of strife and hatred. I’d draped them both in the quilt and headed to bed, wiping my eyes.

“Mommy!” Aria cried gleefully once the door to our apartment opened. “Daddy!”

“There’s our little star!” Thor exclaimed, scooping up his little girl and peppering her cheeks with whiskered kisses. She giggled and kissed him back, then her mother in turn. They all hugged and Aria immediately rattled off everything we’d done that morning, sparing no details. It was pretty hilarious as her parents patiently nodded and commented here and there.

“Not too much trouble, was she?” Val asked as I passed her the crib.

“Just enough,” I said with a wink. She beamed at me.

“Good. Trouble keeps things from being too boring.”

“How was the trip?” I asked.

“We had an amazing time,” she said with a wistful sigh. “We’ll get Aria situated and then you two can come over tonight for dinner and we’ll show you. Thor took a thousand pictures. You’ll be up all night looking at them if you’re not careful.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I smiled and waved. “Bye, Aria! We’ll see you again tonight.”

“Bye, auntie! Bye, Unca Loki!”

Beside me, Loki gave her a warm smile. “Bye, little princess. Until the next time.”

Thor and Val both gave him a surprised look at his words, then smiled knowingly at each other before saying goodbye as well.

We cleaned up the apartment together and then collapsed on the couch. Neither of us said a word for a while, too tired to even turn the television on.

“It’s too quiet in here,” Loki noted.

I chuckled. “After having a kid for a week, yeah. Of course it’s too quiet.”

“Mm.” He settled his chin on the crown of my head. “May I tell you a secret, darling?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You look good with a baby,” he whispered, as if afraid of admitting it aloud. I rubbed his abs; a gesture of reassurance that I’d developed over the years.

“So do you.”

“That does not make you nervous?”

I shrugged. “Not as much as it used to.”

He shifted slightly and his breathing hitched for a second. “Do you…think we should talk?”

“Up to you.”

“No, my darling.” He tipped my chin up to meet my gaze. “It is up to both of us. I do not want to force a conversation if you are unready.”

I bit my lower lip. “Sorry. Habit. I’m…not sure where to start.”

“Neither am I,” he admitted. “But I feel as if something in our relationship has come to light after being with Aria.”

Loki kissed my forehead and slowly ran his hand up and down my arm. “We have not candidly spoken on this subject since you sustained your injuries. Have your thoughts changed since then?”

“Well, the reasons why I hadn’t considered children aren’t as strong as they were at the time. We were still keeping an eye out in case there was any chance of Thanos returning. That didn’t happen. The world has seen plenty of threats since then, but not on that magnitude. Removing that factor, it just leaves me.”

“What about you?” he asked gently.

I took a shaky breath. “I’m not sure I’d be a good mother. Maybe I wouldn’t be a bad one, but anything I know about kids, I learned this week.”

“I see. What is your deepest concern about yourself?”

“I’m not always forthcoming with my feelings. Sometimes I withdraw, like I did back when I had that cold and I was too scared to let you in.”

Loki nodded. “But you did let me in. That is important to remember, love.”

“I know. It’s scary to think about because this is someone who would be entirely dependent on me. My choices directly affect who the child becomes. I might do it wrong. I might hurt them.”

“Yes,” he said. “Go on.”

“And it would change me to know I hurt an innocent life,” I whispered, my throat tightening. “I’ve hurt people in the past, whether on purpose or by accident. I’d die before hurting my own kid.”

“A sentiment I understand very deeply,” he agreed, smoothing his long fingers through my hair. “I watched you the whole time we were with her. You radiated kindness and understanding. You were so very conscious of her needs. You adapted. It is the very thing that made me fall in love with you in the first place, that endless well of compassion that you possess. You have seen the ugly things that reside within me and yet you love me still. I think you would make a wonderful mother, darling. It would not mean your fears simply vanished. It would mean you would stay aware of them and learn how to conquer them, and those you could not conquer alone, you would confide in me so that I may help you conquer them.”

Loki lifted his hand enough to wipe the tears away as they slipped down my cheeks. “You are so strong, my goddess. I admire it deeply.”

I leaned into him fully, feeling the warmth in his touch. “Thank you. And what about you? How are you feeling?”

“Uncertain,” he said quietly. “If I am to be a father someday, then there is one thing I must do first.”

I linked our fingers. “What’s that?”

“I have told you many things. Secrets. Desires. Weaknesses.” He took a long breath. “But there is one reason that is why I do not feel I am fit to be a father. It is…quite damning.”

I nodded. “You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready.”

“I will never be ready,” he whispered. “I love you. I do not wish for it to change how you think of me. However, I cannot agree to become the father of our child without telling you. It could mean everything to this relationship.”

I tried not to swallow hard. I couldn’t imagine my life without him, not by now. It scared me to hear him say something like that after so many years together. “I understand.”

Loki slid away enough to face me and didn’t withdraw his hand from mine, instead holding it between both of his. He started and stopped a couple times, his eyes closed, agony in his handsome features. I stroked his cheek. “It’s okay, Loki. Whatever it is, I want to know because I love you.”

He cleared his throat. “When…when the Night Elves stormed the palace of Asgard, there was one who unlocked the prisoners’ cells. He realized I was the prince and he would not let me out. I sought to earn his trust, for it suited my purposes, so I told him…”

Loki struggled to finish the sentence, his voice hoarse. “…I told him where Odin’s bedchambers were.”

Slowly, the realization dawned on me. “Oh, _Loki.”_

“I…am the reason my mother died that day.”

I squeezed his hand hard, not knowing what to say. Tears dripped down his cheeks. “And I never told another person, for the shame of my selfish act has ravaged what is left of my wretched soul. I was so lost in my hatred of Odin that it cost me the one person I loved most in this and any world.”

“Loki, look at me.”

He shook his head. I hardened my voice and lifted his chin. “Look at me, Loki of Asgard.”

Loki drew a shaking breath and forced his eyes open. The loss in them was incalculable. My soul ached upon seeing it. “You had no reason to think that Frigga would be in those bedchambers that day. Your mother was a warrior. She chose to protect Jane. She was brave and powerful and she loved you with all her heart. She made a choice to defend someone her son loved. Yes, you were wrong. But if Frigga could see you now, she would love you no less than she did for centuries. I know your heart, Loki. You changed from the man you were and became the person Frigga always knew you could be. The choice you made can’t be unmade but it doesn’t mean that you are a monster and it doesn’t mean you couldn’t be a good father.”

He stared at me, somewhere between disbelief and anguish. “Oh, my darling. Your mercy is endless. I do not deserve it and yet you give it to me anyway.”

I smiled through my own tears. “I’m nice like that.”

He shook with exhausted laughter. “Indeed.”

We held hands for a while, our foreheads touching, breathing quietly in the stillness. “It may yet be too soon to make a decision. Perhaps after dinner tonight, we will see more clearly.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “At least we got all our skeletons out of the closet.”

Loki frowned at me. “Darling, who have you murdered? There are far more effective ways of disposing of the evidence. Shall I help you?”

I laughed. “No, Loki, that’s a figure of speech.”

“Ah. Forgive me. I had forgotten.” He paused and gave me a cheeky grin. “Do I not get accolades for being ready to help you get away with murder at a moment’s notice?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, serpent, you were ride or die. I’m so proud.”

“You had damn well better be.” He kissed me. “Come. We must make lunch. Sharing my feelings with you has left me famished.”

“Drama queen.”

“I am a drama _prince_ , thank you very much, mortal.”

* * *

Dinner went great.

Actually, maybe a little too great.

“Lokiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,” I whined as my boyfriend ushered me through the door to our apartment. “I’m fine, you don’t have to fuss over me.”

“You are inebriated, my little mortal,” he mused. “I tried to tell you that Asgardian wine was nothing to trifle with and yet you insisted.”

“Thor said— _hic_ —I couldn’t drink more than one glass!” I said, frowning as he briefly cloned himself in front of me. Or maybe that’s just what I saw. “I had two. Showed him proper.”

Loki shook his head. “My silly darling. Must you rise to his every challenge?”

“Ha! Like you can talk, danger noodle.”

He groaned and scooped me up, gently carrying me to the island counter. “How many times have I told you not to call me that, woman? If you persist, I’ll spank your little ass before I put you to bed.”

I grinned as he poured me some filtered water from the fridge. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

Loki smirked and handed me the glass. “Drink, mortal.”

I drained half the glass in one go. Some of it got on my shirt and he gave me an exasperated look, tugging me out of the blouse. “Whatever shall I do with you?”

“Meh,” I said dismissively as I tugged him closer. “You love me. You love me so much, don’t you, Loki?”

I kissed him. He let me, running his hands up and down my sides, sighing gently into my mouth. “I adore you.”

“Mm.” I licked my lips. “Do we have to get married?”

Loki accidentally knocked the glass onto the floor. He cursed as it broke and splashed his feet, but still looked back at me with wide eyes. “I-I beg your pardon?”

“If we have a kid,” I continued. “Do we have to get married first?”

Loki eyed me and licked his lips. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, it’s kind of a thing on Midgard,” I told him. “They frown upon couples who have babies—” I made quotation marks. “'—out of wedlock.' It doesn’t bother me any, but Thor and Val got married before they had Aria so I wasn’t sure if that’s a thing on Asgard.”

“It…” He tugged at his collar, blushing. “It is not a requirement, but it is strongly encouraged that royalty marry before producing an heir, yes.”

“Oh. Well, that’s okay, then.”

Loki gaped. “You…do you want to marry me?”

“Yeah, sure, why not?”

He kept staring and blushing, apparently stupefied by my comment. I pointed to the shattered glass on the floor. “Loki, mess.”

Loki shook himself a little and waved a hand idly. The glass fragments on the floor trembled and then literally reformed into the glass, almost like he’d reversed time. It was quite neat. He picked it up and refilled it with water. I drank it all this time.

“You are drunk,” he said, still staring at me as if I were the eighth wonder of the world. “I am not to take the things you say as truth when you are inebriated.”

“What? You’ve never heard of in vino veritas?” I asked. “The truth comes out with booze. I’m not lying. I’d marry you if you wanted to marry me. But if you don’t, well—”

Loki caught my chin and held me still, kissing me hard. He slid his fingers into my hair and tilted my head back, his tongue drawing moans out of me from the sheer heat and intensity of the kiss. He was panting by the time he drew back. “I regret that you are not sober, for I wish to fuck you with every ounce of my considerable strength right now. I have longed to call you my wife, but I did not want to seem presumptuous nor was I sure you wished to be at my side as a princess of Asgard. There is much that comes with that title and I wanted you to still feel as if you were your own person.”

He smiled and stroked my throat tenderly. “Yes, my lovely mortal. I would like to marry you.”

“Good.” Loki jumped a little bit when I snuck my hands into his pants, squeezing that taut backside of his. “Are you sure you can’t fuck me like this?”

He laughed then. “No. You must be sober enough to enjoy it.”

I scowled. “Oh, fine. I can’t believe the God of Mischief has actual _morals._ Boo.”

Loki untangled my arms from where they were and relocated them around his neck as he picked me up, carrying me to bed bridal-style. “Look at it this way, my future wife. At least you have something to look forward to in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was literally no reason to include that gif in the beginning other than OH MY GOD WHY IS HE SO ATTRACTIVE IN IT SOMEONE SEND HELP JESUS CHRIST ON A POGO STICK. Just thought I'd share the wealth, my lovelies.
> 
> Oh, and I guess I gotta plan a wedding now LOL.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki "celebrate" their engagement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnnnnnnd we have about a 9.5 on the filth meter again. I'm not even sorry.

I woke up not quite hungover, but definitely questioning reality.

Like if I had drunkenly proposed to my Asgardian boyfriend last night.

As usual, Loki felt me stirring beside him once I woke. He bumped my back with his chest, bare and rippling with muscle, nice and warm under the covers. I tried not to giggle as he buried his face in my nape and slipped his arms around me. “How are you feeling, darling?”

“You were right,” I admitted. “I probably shouldn’t have had that second glass.”

Immediately, I felt something poke my backside. I let out a derisive snort. “Did you just get hard because I said you were right?”

“Yes,” he said. “For you do not say it often.”

I rolled my eyes. “You are so warped, Loki.”

“Indeed. Are you sore?”

I bit my lip. “If I say yes, are you going to leave me alone?”

“If that is what you wish.”

“Liar.”

“Hardly. I believe in firm and clear consent in our relationship at all times. You do not have to partake in morning delights if you do not want them.”

I wanted them in a big way. A very big way. “I’m thinking about it. But, um, did I…you know…uh…p-propose to you last night?”

“You did.”

“Did you say yes?”

“I did.”

I blushed profusely. “Oh. So I guess we’re going to get married, then.”

“Yes, my pet, we are. But not this very second.” I shivered as he drew one fingertip down my spine. Loki’s lips brushed the shell of my ear. “I wish to fuck you, darling. Thoroughly. Watch your beautiful body writhing in my sheets as you take my cock deep inside. I want to watch you give yourself over to the pleasure of my touch completely and utterly. Is that what you want as well?”

I couldn’t help feeling a bit coy. It made me feel powerful knowing how much he lusted after me, even now, years later. “What if I say no?”

“That is your right as my lover. I suppose I’ll just have to…” I felt his lips curl into a smirk. “…satisfy myself.”

Again, I shivered. We’d never gone quite that far, but we had engaged in phone sex a few times. I knew I didn’t have enough self-control for Loki to pleasure himself in the same room with me watching. I’d certainly jump him before long.

“Well,” I purred, pushing my hips back enough to hear him hiss. “It would be our first morning together with you as my fiancé.”

“Mm, yes. I believe this is a special occasion, is it not?”

“It is.”

“Lovely.”

Then, out of nowhere, the bed in front of me pitched downward with the weight of a third person.

Confused, I faced forward.

There was a _second_ Loki in bed with me.

I yelped and popped up from the mattress. The second Loki grinned and the first one lay back on his pillow, laughing heartily. “Oh, my. That was worth it.”

“Loki,” I fussed, blushing as his clone gave me a little wink. “You have to warn a girl before you do something like that.”

He sat up and kissed my cheek, rubbing my bare shoulders. “Then I would not have gotten that novel reaction from you.”

“Hardy-har.” I eyed his clone and poked his chest with one finger. It was exactly as muscular and sculpted as the original, meaning that he was real, not just an illusion. My blush deepened as I realized exactly why he’d created a clone in our bedroom. No wonder he’d wanted a King-sized bed.

“Uh,” I said as the clone picked up my hand and kissed the back of it. “Are you, um, sure I can handle this sort of thing?”

“I have had the privilege of enjoying you for a few years now,” Loki said, tickling his hands down my sides. “I believe I know your limits quite well and I think you will find this to be enjoyable. However, you may stop me if it becomes too much to bear. I only seek your pleasure, pet.”

The Loki clone flipped my hand over and drew my thumb into his mouth, then my fingers one at a time. I stared at him, mesmerized, as my Loki kissed the side of my neck. Oh, boy. This was going to be…interesting.

I nearly jumped as my Loki popped off my bra. His double’s eyes flicked down to enjoy the sight and then met my gaze again, his voice very nearly a purr as he asked, “May I?”

“Y-Yes,” I said meekly, sitting back on my haunches. Loki settled behind me as my anchor, petting my stomach in soothing, smooth motions. The new Loki skimmed his fingertips across my nipples and then cupped them in his big hands, angling his face over mine. He kissed me. It felt exactly the same as it always did—mind-blowingly amazing and disorienting as hell considering he was also kissing the spot between my shoulder blades. It was crazy-weird and yet I liked it anyway.

“You’re trembling,” the clone whispered, his lashes low over his eyes, his tone playful.

“Uh-huh,” I mumbled.

“Do you like this, pet?”

“Uh. Jury’s out.”

Both Loki’s chuckled in unison. It was disconcerting.

I gasped as my Loki slipped his hand into my panties. My skin tingled in confused excitement from so much attention on so many delicate areas. Loki teased my clit and then dipped his finger down against the rest of me, using a light beckoning motion. The clone gently pinched my nipples harder until they were to his liking and lowered his mouth to one. I cried out, gripping his shoulders, bumping back into Loki’s warm chest as the pleasure shot straight down between my legs. A flood of liquid heat seeped out of me to wet Loki’s fingers, which made him growl and leave a little bite mark on the soft spot under my right shoulder blade. He palmed me with his hand, rubbing, caressing, spread the wetness until he had enough to move. He hooked two fingers inside me. I bucked helplessly, gasping again, unsure which one of them to press into to try to steady myself.

“I want a taste,” the clone murmured. “Let me taste you, pet.”

I nodded mutely, too excited and overwhelmed for actual words. Loki’s arms wrapped around me from behind and he stretched out against the headboard with me in his lap. The clone slid off my panties and pushed my legs apart, his pupils dilating as he focused on my naked body.

My Loki lowered a hand enough to help part my walls for the other Loki and he dove right in.

Oh my fucking _God._

The sensation of one Loki underneath and one above was unparalleled.

“Oh! Oh, Loki. Oh, _shit_ , Loki.” I grabbed handfuls of the sheets and shuddered from head to toe as his tongue lapped at my sensitive inner walls while one hand lightly strummed my clit, the other kneading my right breast. I moaned piteously, too stimulated, and tried to slam my thighs shut, but the other Loki held my calves fast so I couldn’t move. My Loki gyrated his hips beneath my ass, slowly, reminding me of what he wanted to do to me even as he watched me chase my orgasm. He stroked my outer walls, lavishing them with tiny, light nips, and then sunk his tongue inside me, relocating his fingers to my inner thighs. He coaxed my hips into the same rhythm as my Loki’s, and in seconds, I dissolved into the pleasure until we were one and the same.

“Please, please,” I begged, near tears, shaking all over, sweat beading on my skin. “Please, Loki.”

“My sweet girl,” Loki purred in my ear. “We are but your humble servants. What is it you desire?”

“Please, let me come, please, Loki.”

“We would be delighted to do so.” Mercifully, his hand vacated my clit.

Only for the other Loki to slide two fingers into me.

His hot mouth slid higher to my clit and covered it entirely as he pumped his long, slender fingers into me viciously fast. The lewd, slick sound drove me crazy. I gripped the back of his head before I could stop myself, lifting my hips desperately to achieve my climax. He growled in response and propped my legs onto his broad shoulders, changing the angle of his mouth and fingers. Somehow, they slid deeper, all the way to my scorching wet core. I screamed out a curse and peaked that very second, every inch of me doused in ecstasy.

The orgasm surged through me quickly, ruthlessly, and then I collapsed onto my Loki, panting like I’d run twelve marathons in a row. The other Loki had the nerve to wink at me before rising to his knees, licking his lips and fingers clean. I couldn’t find it in me to be offended. What a show.

I floated back into awareness with my Loki pressing affectionate kisses to my temple and lightly cupping my breasts. “Small.”

“Hmm?” Both Loki’s said in question.

“Too small,” I croaked. “If you’re thinking about going for gold. There’s no way I can handle you both at the same time.”

My Loki chuckled. “Naughty pet. That would certainly hurt you. No, that is not what I had in mind.”

“Taking turns, then?”

“Yes. Far more civilized, don’t you think? Since you are averse to…” He pointedly dug his hard cock into my ass. “… _other_ options.”

“Hey,” I said defensively. “You said you wouldn’t tease me about that. I doubt you’d be so quick to judge if I stuck something in your—”

The word died on my tongue as the other Loki chose that exact moment to slide out of his boxers and plunge his titanic cock inside me.

“Unnnnngh,” I stated eloquently instead, my head lolling back onto Loki’s shoulder as my entire body seized with undeniable pleasure yet again. My sopping walls clenched the clone’s cock tightly and held on for dear life as he buried himself to the hilt. My Loki’s cock jerked against my ass, unable to help rubbing to alleviate his own desire. I found that absurdly hot for some reason. I was not a well woman.

“Mm,” the clone hummed once he’d draped my legs over his forearms to hold me steady. “There’s a good girl.”

I tried to respond, but nothing resembling English left my lips, just some kind of slurred sound of approval. He pulled me down against his pelvis, swiveling his hips enough to hit my clit, and I moaned, clawing at his abs before I could help it. I pressed them flat to his hot skin as he drew out of me and then slipped back inside, filling me so deliciously I couldn’t stop a mewl of delight. Below me, Loki sucked on my ear lobe and steadily fondled my breasts, sinking into a complimentary rhythm with his clone. I lost my head that very second, trapped between them, drowning in decadence.

I bit my lip as Loki’s hands roved down until they hit my waist. He squeezed and jerked me down onto his cock harder, his hips thrusting into the movement at the same time. He pounded into me so deep I wanted to cry from how goddamn phenomenal it felt, both of them riding me for all I was worth.

“Wrap your legs around me,” the other Loki ordered. “I’m going to make you come.”

I obeyed without hesitation. “Now watch me, sweetheart.”

I whined in my throat, but forced my eyes open to see him with his lithe arms bulging from the effort of slamming me down onto his cock, his handsome face flushed, the muscles in his chest and abs stretching with every stroke inside my melting heat. His eyes shone with pride and anticipation as he drilled into me roughly again and again.

“Come,” he whispered. “Come for me. Come for _us_.”

The “us” did me in this time. I came suddenly, so fast I didn’t even scream—just hissed out a breath and shuddered as my inner walls flexed all at once. The other Loki exhaled in a long, lustful groan and came inside me, his cock throbbing until it softened as he finished. He brought me down from my high lightly petting my stomach, occasionally dipping down enough to tickle my clit, finally pulling out once he’d extracted every bit of my pleasure.

“What a good little kitten,” he cooed. “You did so well, my love.”

Heat rushed up my neck and filtered into my cheeks. “Cheeky bastard.”

The other Loki dropped a kiss to my lips. “And yet you love me anyway.”

“Well, no one said I was smart.”

My Loki kissed my temple. “Have you recovered, darling?”

I snorted. “As much as I’m going to.”

“Good.”

I made a little “eep!” noise as Loki abruptly rolled over and I found myself on all fours, my bottom in the air in front of him. He grinned at my flustered expression and slapped my ass on either side, teasingly, not enough to hurt, just to play with me. I nearly fussed at him until I realized the clone had knelt in front of me, stroking his cock hard again with a matching eager grin.

“Oh, good, I’m being spit-roasted.”

The Loki’s chortled good-naturedly. “Is that what this is called?”

“Ask Pornhub.” I cocked my head slightly, eyeing the clone. “Isn’t this being a bit greedy?”

“Entirely,” he answered. “But the only thing I like as much as fucking you is seeing your mouth on my cock. Why not enjoy both at the same time?”

“Lech,” I accused.

“Oh, you have no idea.” He ran his thumb over my lips and then kissed me. “Are you up for it?”

“I’m almost as much of a pervert as you are at this point. Of course I’m up for it.”

“I do so love corrupting you,” the original Loki sighed, running his slim fingers down my naked spine and then molding his hard cock between the halves of my ass. His double lifted my chin until it was level with his groin. “Open wide.”

I let my jaw slacken and parted my lips for him. The soft, hot skin of the rounded head passed the entrance to my mouth. And I realized I should have been paying attention.

My Loki chose that exact moment to delve his way into me as well.

I made a noise between a groan and a gasp around Loki’s cock, my eyes nearly flitting shut from the combined pleasure of the two of them. I wiggled my legs in an attempt to ride out the pleasure, my overstimulated cunt squeezing the original Loki insanely hard. He let out a harsh noise that gave away how much restraint it took him not to come too quickly and latched onto my hips. He said my name in warning and swatted my ass, as if it’d been my fault he nearly pitched over the edge. I couldn’t reply with my mouth full, obviously.

“Mm, what a sight,” the clone said, licking his lips as he watched his now fully hard cock slide almost all the way out of my mouth. “You are a vision this way.”

Loki rocked into me from behind, which pushed me right back onto other Loki’s cock like a perverted pendulum of some sort. Obscene slurping noises filled the air. I could feel the weight of their gaze on my vulnerable body as they swayed back and forth, pleasuring me and accepting pleasure from me. Loki nudged my thighs further apart and picked up speed. I made a needy noise around his cock and the other Loki shivered as the vibrations teased over him. I liked that wild look when he started to lose composure, so I cupped his balls with one hand and sucked harder in kind. He cursed in Old Norse, his eyes nearly black as he stared down at me in lustful fascination. Behind me, Loki growled and slapped my ass, leaning his tall frame into me more than before as he too began reaching the edge.

“Fuck, you look so gorgeous right now,” he rasped over the colliding slap of our skin. “Venus herself could never even approach you. To think that soon I will be able to call you my own, my wife, my eternal partner in all things. You are beauty itself.”

I moaned around his cock, my spine arching as he pummeled me into submission from behind. He flattened his hand along my lower belly, his rough fingertips finding my clit again. “Come, darling. Give it all to me, your Loki.”

I balled up the sheets in one hand, wanting to last longer, but I couldn’t. I came again, lightheaded as impossible heat flooded over me from head to toe. The other Loki’s head rolled back on his neck as he came down my throat, pale and handsome in the height of his pleasure. Behind me, my Loki rolled his hips against my ass as he finished inside me as well, growling sensually.

It seemed that the strength of the orgasm made him lose focus. A moment after the clone Loki retreated from my mouth, he glimmered for a moment, winking at me in thanks, and then vanished. The one and only Loki wrapped his arms around me and flopped onto the bed. The two of us lay there panting in exertion until we finally caught our collective breath.

“Now then,” my future husband said casually, as if he hadn’t tag-team fucked my brains out. “Tell me about Midgardian engagements.”

I shook my head at him and rolled over, dragging the sheets with me as I settled next to him. “It depends on the person. Typically, the man proposes with an engagement ring, the woman says yes, and they announce it to their friends and family. After that, they have an engagement party and then the wedding itself. The whole process costs way too much money and is often superficial as hell.”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “So like your so-called Valentine’s Day, but worse?”

“Almost exactly like that. I would much prefer to learn about Asgardian engagement, personally. I remember Thor and Val’s wedding, but I wasn’t sure you would want to keep with the same traditions. They exchanged weapons, right?”

“Yes,” he said, seeming slightly proud that I’d noted as much. “The weapon is as important as the ring to Asgardians. It represents protection and acknowledgment of the future. Weddings on Asgard were usually held on the Midgardian equivalent of a Friday and they last for a week.”

“Like all Asgardian celebrations, apparently,” I said in a wry tone.

He chuckled. “You are not wrong. They love a good celebration. We choose a destination and invite our families to stay, spending ample time with them in friendship and appreciation. We drink ale at the post wedding ceremony.”

I gave him a sly look. “I read somewhere that Thor is supposed to place his hammer in my lap.”

Loki pinched me while I laughed hysterically at the look on his face. “That is a silly superstition that the Midgardians of yore started.”

“I know,” I giggled. “I just couldn’t resist.”

He smacked my ass. “Behave, little pet, or you’ll get that spanking I promised last night.”

“Fine, fine. How would I dress?”

“However you wish, for it is not of much consequence. I will construct a crown for you and you one for me that we will exchange. Furs are traditionally worn over our clothing, as you saw at Thor and Brunhilde’s wedding. We can go through the logistics once we set a date, but…” He frowned. “I suppose we have to tell your Avengers, don’t we?”

“My,” I scoffed. “Bluff all you want, danger noodle. You’ve made friends with them too, even if you continue to deny it.”

He grumbled something under his breath. “Either way, we just need to avoid a winter wedding, so choose whenever suits you to tell them.”

“We’ll need engagement rings to make it official. I know you can conjure one out of nothing, but I’d like to design a ring that you like, if that’s okay.”

Loki gave me a fond look and kissed my forehead. “Of course, my sweet. I shall do the same.”

“Good. Let’s give it a week, then. Deal?”

He kissed me. “Deal, my love.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki give the Avengers the engagement news.

“Alright, that’s the last item on the agenda for today,” Tony said. “Anything else?”

Loki reached under the table and squeezed my knee gently. I cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah, bit of news.”

“Ah, our favorite goth couple has something for us, I see,” Tony said, earning a roll of the eyes from yours truly.

“No big deal, it’s just that we’ve decided to make things official,” I continued. “We’re, um, getting married.”

Silence.

Then, in perfect unison, most of the Avengers all groaned, _“Finally.”_

I scoffed and tossed some glares around at them. “Oh, stop it, all of you.”

“No offense, Frosty, but we all knew you and Stabby McLeatherpants over there were soulmates from the start, so forgive us for being impatient about when you’d make it official,” Tony said, narrowing his eyes at Loki.

“Remind me how long it took before you proposed to Virginia, Stark?” Loki said as pompously as possible. “You were not in a hurry either.”

“I had some shit to sort out first,” Tony grumbled. “You, on the other hand, are blessed to even be seen as a viable candidate for our ice gal here so—”

“Tony,” I interrupted with a severe look. “Save your insults for the engagement party, if you don’t mind. We’re just letting you all know. There’ll be a save-the-date going out.”

“Fair enough. Congratulations.” Tony smirked. “And truth be told, it’s not me you have to worry about.”

As if on cue, the door opened and Thor reappeared with four boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts—two of which I knew were for him exclusively—balanced on one palm, having gone to pay the Postmates driver. He grinned broadly at the room. “What did I miss?”

Tony flashed me a shit-eating grin and then glanced at the big fella. “Frosty and Loki are gettin’ hitched.”

Thor’s face lit up with maddening glee. I closed my eyes. “Goddamn it, Tony.”

The God of Thunder shoved the doughnuts into the giggling Tony’s arms and then lunged for me, scooping me out of the chair entirely and spinning me around. “My lady! It finally happened!”

He squeezed the air out of my lungs in a crushing hug and kissed both my cheeks. “I can’t believe it! You’re going to be my sister!”

“I’m going to be dead if you don’t put me down,” I moaned with what little breath I had left in my chest. “Down, Thor. _Down.”_

“This is wonderful!” He finally deposited me on the ground once more and squeezed Loki’s shoulder. “We must go out and celebrate tonight! Tell me everything. When did he propose?”

I blushed then. “I, um, I sort of…proposed.”

“That is amazing,” Nat said with a laugh. “And also perfectly in-character.”

“I was drunk,” I whined, embarrassed as they all grinned at me. “And, well, I got curious, and so I sort of blurted it out a bit, but he said yes. Don’t make this a whole thing, okay?”

“Having made several major life decisions when drunk, you’ll hear no judgment from me,” Tony said. “But the big guy’s right. We’ve got to go out tonight for drinks and hear the gory details. It’s custom. I assume we’re in for another Asgardian wedding, right?”

“That’s the plan, yeah.”

“I can’t wait to help you plan it,” Thor said, practically bouncing on his heels. “You’ll be the most beautiful bride, milady. Have you chosen the rings yet?”

“Yes.” I held out my hand. Loki had gotten me a gold band decorated with amethysts—my birthstone—and emeralds—his official color as a prince of Asgard— in an alternating pattern that had two tiny, beautifully detailed snakes winding about them on either side in an infinity loop. He’d had words inscribed on the interior: _My love for you is eternal, my goddess._

Loki’s had been a bit tricky to figure out. He wasn’t a jewelry person, aside from wearing nice watches when in Midgardian clothing. I’d worked with the blacksmith to design his ring from an actual remnant of the golden palace walls found on one of the salvage trips, melted down into a simple band, and upon I’d had inscribed: _My love for you is eternal, my prince._

“You know who you are,” I’d told him after we’d exchanged them this morning. “You know where you came from. You’re a survivor. I hope this ring reminds you of that and of the strength it took for you to become who you are. Never forget that you aren’t alone. I will be with you always.”

“I am honored,” he whispered, running his thumbs across my hands where they were joined with his. “I know that it has been hard for you without a family, without roots in which to plant yourself, but you are strong and valiant and loving. I hope that I am able to give you the family that you desire, my darling.”

It had been perhaps the most tender moment I’d ever shared with him.

In between their usual friendly teasing, the rest of the Avengers congratulated us and those that felt comfortable enough agreed to drinks. Tony made reservations at the trendiest club he could find—because of course Iron Dad had to show off, or rather, show up Loki—and we had the entire upper floor of a club with a private bartender and an all-you-can-eat buffet to enjoy. Loki wasn’t big on parties or crowds, but by now he had a rapport with the team members and could find subjects on which to chat where he was his least insufferable self.

I took a break midway through the night to step onto the balcony for some fresh air and enjoy the New York skyline. I enjoyed the city’s noise. In a strange way, it comforted me to know it was up and running 24/7 and that in the smallest of ways, I was one of the reasons it was still standing. New York City was often a target for new villains and warlords, since aliens didn’t realize that New York state and New York City were two separate things. They’d run in like the bad guys from the Powerpuff Girls and knock things over in hopes of challenging us. It was a tough job, but it was worth it, scars and all.

The balcony door opened and closed. I heard dress shoes on the concrete and didn’t suppress a smile. “You drank the entire bar, didn’t you?”

“I did not,” Thor scoffed. “Thank you very much.”

I just looked at him with my eyebrow raised. Thor coughed into his hand and avoided my gaze for a second. “Half. I drank half. There, happy?”

I giggled. “Ecstatic, in fact. I’m glad you’re having a good time.”

“As am I, my sister,” he said, his single eye twinkling, a playful smirk on his lips.

I blushed. “You love saying that, don’t you?”

“I do,” he grinned. “I have thought of you so fondly all this time. I am so glad I can say it with truth to it now. I am excited for the journey that is ahead of you.”

I chewed my lip, spinning the martini glass between my fingers. “And…you figured I had questions.”

The smirk didn’t dim; it simply relaxed into a genuine smile. “Aye.”

I drained the martini and set the glass aside on a table, letting out a long breath. “I…guess I should start with what it means to be royalty. I mean, I’ve been with you and Loki for years and I’ve seen a lot from the sidelines, but I’ve never been one of you. It seems like the most prominent thing is expectations. And I think that’s why Loki had never asked me. He was worried I wouldn’t get to be myself any longer if I became his wife.”

I glanced up at Thor, not hiding my worry. “Do you feel that’s the case?”

“There are many things that will be expected of you as a princess of Asgard,” Thor agreed. “However, it will be different from what you may have known of Asgard when my father and mother were still alive. Odin ruled with an iron fist. His word was law. Few defied him and those that did paid a terrible price.”

He winced. “Both my brother and I can attest to that. It is one of the first things I changed when I accepted the throne in the end. I did not want Asgard to be under my thumb. I actively seek counsel from my people. I do not make decisions for them. I let them be who they are and I do not pass down judgment for their future, rather, helping them grow into it. As a result, they have taken to Midgard quite well, integrating into your cultures here. I think they will welcome you with open arms and you will begin to understand our world more clearly. Your role will merely be support, much as it is with Avengers as well. From time to time, they will call for a counsel meeting to see what needs to be done. You can choose to participate as much or as little as you wish.”

“I am an outsider, though,” I said, shifting slightly on my heels as nervous energy rushed through me. “I mean, my lifespan might be longer as a result of my ice magic, but it’s still only a percentage of yours. Are you sure your people won’t feel offended to have a Midgardian holding a position of leadership in their court?”

“We ran into some problems when I was still with Jane, so I cannot deny that there may be some friction, but overall, I think it will be fine.” He licked his lips. “However, what does concern me—and what I wager concerns Loki as well—is that marrying him makes you royal family.”

Thor’s blue eye narrowed. “Our enemies will know you.”

I exhaled. “Yeah. I figured as much. Loki’s never lied to me, but I know he downplays the assassination attempts. There have been several, right?”

“Yes,” he agreed. “And there will be more in time. Our planet may be gone, but our enemies do not care. They will come for him or me and they will not show mercy.”

He rubbed my back gently. “Make no mistake, my sister. I am not worried that you cannot handle yourself. I know you very well. I only want you to know the dangers of accepting this role so that you may prepare yourself. I will be with you, as will Loki, and my wife will support you as well. If anything ever feels more than you can bear, you have someone to help. You have family now.”

I felt a sudden rush at his words. It was terrifying, but…really gratifying too. I’d had a family for a while now, with the Avengers, with Thor, with Loki. But now it would be on paper. If I died, it would be written in history that I was Loki’s beloved wife. God forbid, at Loki’s funeral, they would say, “Loki is survived by his wife.”

Me.

“Can I handle this?” I asked quietly. “Can I handle what it is to be the wife of a god?”

“Yes,” Thor said, without a hint of hesitation. “Better than anyone I know.”

I sunk into him, hugging him with all my strength. “Thank you.”

“Always,” he said, kissing my hair. We stayed in the embrace for a long moment.

“There is another thing,” he told me once he’d let go. “Had you spoken about children yet?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we’re considering it, at least.”

“That is wonderful,” he said sincerely. “However, I was concerned for Loki given his heritage.”

“As a Frost Giant,” I said. “Yeah, we…hadn’t gotten to that part yet, mostly because we’re still not entirely sure yet.”

“It may serve you to speak with some of our magic users who understood Odin’s powers more fully than the two of us,” Thor said. “It has always been our belief that Odin did not simply place an illusion over Loki that allows him to appear as we do. We believe he infused the magic with Loki’s soul when he rescued him on Jotunheim. That is why even though my father is dead, Loki remains the same. He is as he appears; it’s not just something that covers him. We believe the Casket’s magic was able to reverse Odin’s magic. That being said, your child would indeed be half Frost Giant. It may be worth asking if it will be of any further strain to you during pregnancy.”

He paused. “And it may be worth finding out who Loki’s birth mother may have been as well.”

I inhaled sharply. “Oh. Loki is not going to like that.”

“Nor will he want to hear of any such talk of his roots,” Thor agreed. “It may be painful to dig up his past, but I thought I should mention it to you just to be safe.”

“Thank you. It’s very considerate. I’ll let you know what we find, if we’re able to do so without him freaking out.”

“Without whom freaking out?”

I jumped a bit as I spotted Loki at the balcony door, an eyebrow raised at the two of us. I shook my head. “Someone should put a bell around your neck.”

Loki cocked his head, not unlike a cat, which made me laugh. “We’re just having a brother-sister chat, if that’s alright with you, husband.”

“I do not like it when he monopolizes your time,” Loki drawled. “I want you back.”

“He’s so needy,” Thor said with a smirk. “Isn’t it cute?”

“Will I still be cute when I perforate your liver with an ice pick?” Loki growled.

I rolled my eyes. “You grumpy snake. Be nice. He was welcoming me into the family.”

“There is no welcome necessary,” Loki said, sliding his arm around me and kissing my temple. “For you have been family for years. It is merely a formality, is it not?”

“Aye,” Thor said, smiling down at me. “Nothing new for any of us.”

I glanced at my position—sandwiched between the two Odinsons—and couldn’t help but smirk. “Y’know, there might be something to this here.”

Both of them sputtered in surprise, giving me identical scandalized looks. I laughed my ass off.

“Oh, you are going to pay for that later,” Loki seethed, blushing through his glare.

“Hey, I’m just considering my honeymoon options.” I darted for the balcony door as he chased after me. “Tony, Steve, save me! Angry noodle on the loose!”

“Get back here this instant, woman!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More pre-wedding shenanigans, but also, some unexpected conflict.

Pre-marital bliss, it seemed, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

We stayed out far too late partying with the team and then stumbled home, collapsing into bed in a heap. I’d been asleep a good long while when an unusual rustling sound woke me sometime after about three o’clock in the morning. The mattress moved under Loki’s weight, but it didn’t seem intentional. I pushed aside the foggy haze of sleep and rolled over, confused.

And what I saw scared me half to death.

Loki had curled in on himself, one hand gripping the pillow hard enough to crush and wrinkle the fabric, his face pressed into the sheets, his breathing harsh and labored. He muttered something in Old Norse, his shoulders jerking every so often, cold sweat beading along his spine.

He was having a nightmare.

I sat up immediately, adrenaline making my voice sound too loud and too thready in my ears. “Loki?”

He didn’t stir when I called out to him. I slid closer and touched his shoulder as gently as possible. “Loki, sweetheart, wake up.”

A pained wheeze escaped his lungs. Panic clutched my chest. I stroked his arm. “Loki, please, honey, just wake up. You’ve having a nightmare.”

He clenched his jaw, his brow so deeply furrowed it had to hurt. “Don’t. Don’t take her. Not her too.”

Finally, I lifted up over him and pushed hard so he lay on his back, shouting, “Loki!”

His eyes popped open and he let out a startled, agonized cry, trying to lurch upright. I flattened my hands over his shoulders and held him there with every ounce of strength I possessed as I saw the pure panic in him. “Loki, it’s me. It’s okay. It’s your darling. Look at me.”

He gasped underneath me, his cold fingers latching onto my forearms, reality returning to him at last. He was much too pale and I felt him shaking underneath me. It broke my heart.

“It’s okay,” I whispered as I loosened my grip. “You’re safe. Look at me, Loki. You’re safe.”

Gradually, his breathing regulated itself. I stroked his cheek, his chin, cooling my hand a few degrees with ice magic as I noticed the feverish temperature he still held. “Say it. Out loud.”

“Safe,” he rasped. “I am…safe.”

“Good,” I cooed as soothingly as possible. “Just breathe for me.”

He shut his eyes and stayed there on the pillow for a few minutes. He wouldn’t let go of my arms, as if he needed me to anchor him, so I didn’t move either.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked. “I didn’t mean to wake you, love.”

I flicked him in the forehead. He gave me a confused look. “Don’t apologize. That sounded awful, Loki. You were…”

I shook my head, swallowing hard. “I haven’t seen you that way before. Ever. You scared me when you wouldn’t wake at first.”

He pushed up on his hands and wrapped his arms around me, pressing my forehead to his. “It’s alright, my sweet. You needn’t worry.”

“That’s exactly what I should be doing,” I told him, exasperated. “You were having night terrors. I know you have bad dreams sometimes. Everyone does. But that…Loki, that was something else.”

He winced. “Yes.”

“Do you want to talk while it’s still fresh?”

Loki shook his head. “No. I can’t speak of such things. You never know what dark creatures can hear you.”

I cupped his cheek. “Before you woke, you said, ‘Don’t take her. Not her too.”

Pure agony flooded his features then. “I…”

“Shh,” I told him, kissing him. “Okay, I won’t push you. I won’t. I promise. Just…if it was about me, I just want you to know that I’m here. And I’m fine. I know you’re still getting over almost losing me and if there’s anything I can do—”

“You are already doing it,” he whispered, giving me a faint smile. “I promise. Being here with you is all I need. It is all I will ever need, my darling.”

“I love you,” I told him fiercely. “Hear me, Loki of Asgard. I love every inch of your stupid, impossible self, do you understand me?”

He chuckled a little. “Yes, my goddess.”

“That’s right,” I sniffed. “As your goddess, I command you to snuggle me.”

That got an actual laugh out of him. “So it has been decreed.”

“Damn right.”

He turned onto his side and looped his long arms around me, cradling me against him. I threw my leg over his hip and buried my face under his chin, kissing his collarbone and running my fingers across his ribs. His limbs relaxed one at a time. His breathing deepened. Just before he dropped off to sleep, he kissed the crown of my head, his voice rough with exhaustion.

“I love you too, my darling.”

Loki dozed off not long afterward. I kept still and waited for sunrise, my mind cruelly replaying his words in a loop that worried me more with every passing hour.

_“Don’t. Don’t take her. Not her too.”_

My poor prince.

* * *

Weeks went by rather quickly as we approached the main event. The nice thing about being an Avenger meant that I didn’t have to do the long engagement where it took a year or longer to plan the actual wedding. We had of course invited Asgard to attend, but it was an open invitation, no RSVPs necessary. The event would be at a private establishment so no nosy reporters or fans could show up and so it was far easier to plan than I assumed a normal Midgardian wedding would be. Val and Thor were angels helping us make arrangements and decisions, adding input where needed and making sure we got all the things we wanted as well.

Which happened to include and bachelor and bachelorette party.

Brun and Nat took the helm immediately, shooing me away and being as secretive as possible about it. All I knew was the date and that I had to dress up since there’d be photos. They allowed me two simple requests: nothing fancy-schmancy and above all, no strippers.

The lady Avengers—Brunhilde, Natasha, Pepper, and Wanda—very kindly took me to a fine dining all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. It was one of those neat ones that had a rotating conveyor belt where you chose whatever you wanted and tallied it up at the end once you were full. I ate my body weight in sushi and then they took me to a classy little bar for drinks afterward. They’d rented a private VIP booth upstairs away from all the noise and they gave me engagement presents and made silly toasts in my honor. 

“Alright, you great silly thing,” Brunhilde said after draining probably her hundredth beer of the night. “Are you ready for your last present?”

“Oh, no,” I groaned. “We’re making a big deal out of this one, aren’t we?”

“It’s the grand finale,” she insisted. “We have to make a big deal out of it. Go out with a bang.”

“Fine, fine, hit me,” I conceded after downing my last shot of the night. Nat came forward with a blindfold and tied it on me. There was a lot of giggling going on, but I still didn’t have the faintest clue of what was in store for me. It only took about ten or fifteen seconds before Nat gave me the cue.

“Alright, are you ready?”

“Yes.”

She popped my blindfold off.

And I found myself staring at the God of Thunder.

Wearing his cape, a pair of boxers, boots, and nothing else.

For several seconds, I just sat there with my mouth hanging open.

Thor gave me a Cheshire cat grin and a bow. “My lady. I believe you requested entertainment this evening.”

I laughed harder than I had in my entire life.

The girls had just been waiting for my reaction; they instantly joined in and cheered as I covered my burning face with both hands, hiccuping as gales of laughter kept spewing out of me. I couldn’t handle it. Every time I thought I could control the giggling, a fresh round hit me until I was bent over in my chair clutching my stomach. Eventually, I managed words, but even then, they were fractured.

“Oh, no…Thor…what’re you…and the cape…and the _boxers?!”_

“That’s not the best part,” he told me with a straight face. He turned around and swept his cape to one side. There, in gold lettering, was the word MIGHTY written across his perfectly taut ass.

I sailed into more laughter. Thor grinned ear to ear as he faced me. “I take it milady is pleased?”

“You absolute fucking bastard!” I screeched, tears pouring down my cheeks. “God, I love you. This is amazing, holy _shit._ ”

“And it’s only the beginning,” he promised. Thor pointed to Nat, who had already gone over to the audio system built into the room. “Maestro?”

She hit a button and an oldie but a goodie from the 2000’s kicked up: “Peaches and Cream” by 112. The ladies all cheered even harder as Thor sauntered towards me, removing the cape. I clapped my hands over my face and just sat there cackling as he wiggled around rather convincingly in a faux strip tease. He made a couple laps around the room, kissing the ladies’ hands and letting them slip him dollar bills, completely owning the ridiculous role as the not-stripper because _of course he did_.

By the time he was done, we were all absolutely three-sheets-to-the-wind drunk and couldn’t have been happier about it. Brun and Thor ended the night with a shots competition that we all took bets on with our remaining cash. Thor held his liquor amazingly well, but in the end, Brunhilde still took home the win, kissing her silly husband on the forehead after he admitted defeat. With that, we piled into our limo and headed back to the Avengers compound.

I climbed in bed next to my future husband and dropped onto my pillow with a happy sigh. He stirred and rolled over, slipping his arms around me and kissing my forehead. “Welcome home, love. Did you have fun?”

“Mm, all the fun,” I slurred, nuzzling the spot under his chin. “Thanks for asking. How was your bachelor party?”

“Eventful,” he said. “They arranged for the finest dancers of Asgard to put on a show for me. It was marvelous.”

I peeled one eye open enough to look at him. “Were they dancers naked?”

“Not entirely.”

I scowled at him and he chuckled. “It was not erotic in nature, darling.”

He kissed my nose. “You are not the jealous type, but it is so very cute when you get a little green-eyed.”

“You’re my Loki,” I said petulantly. “Don’t want some Asgardian girl making moves on you.”

“I assure you, no one did.”

“S’what I like to hear. Did you have a good time with the guys?”

“Define ‘good time,’” he said frostily. I poked him in the ribs to get him to elaborate. “Yes, pet. Though they made it abundantly clear that if I were to cause you any harm or unhappiness, they’d kill me en masse in no uncertain terms.”

I winced. “Sounds about right. They mean well.”

“I suppose. Stark clearly did not want to be there, but he at least bothered to make an appearance and threaten me. I do wonder where my brother wandered off to towards the end of the night, though.”

I stifled a laugh. We’d all agreed at my party not to breathe a single word of Thor’s antics to Loki, for he was still incredibly possessive even though he’d gotten milder over time. Thor of all people performing a humorous strip tease would send Loki off the deep end for sure. 

“We have to move, don’t we?” I said suddenly, not sure why the hell it occurred to my drunken brain now, but I blurted it out anyway. “If we get married and start a family. We won’t…be here anymore. With them.”

Loki shifted a bit, his tone careful. “I suppose we won't.”

“Mm.”

“I know that saddens you,” he said, stroking my back. “It’s alright. You made a home for yourself here. You became used to having them around, that sense of community. Family.”

“I hope they don’t forget about me,” I mumbled as a swell of insecurity from the old days rose through me. I knew it sounded silly out loud, but it didn’t make that feeling go away.

“Impossible,” Loki said with the utmost confidence. “They can’t forget their little mascot, can they?”

I hit him in the chest and he chuckled. “Mean old noodle.”

He made a damn fine imitation of a snake’s hiss in my ear and I dissolved into giggles. He didn’t like to play along, but sometimes he did for my amusement. “Where should we live? I want to be close by, but still have some breathing space. Oh, and a screened in porch. I want a cat. And granite countertops. And hardwood floors, screw carpeting, it’s so tedious—”

Loki kissed me. I shut up then. Mm. What a lovely kiss.

“We can discuss these things when it is not three o’clock in the morning and you are not knee-wobbling, cross-eyed levels of inebriated,” Loki promised. “Rest, my darling.”

“Mmkay.” It wasn’t hard to let my eyes drift closed again and to nestle into his chest. “What kind of house do you want, Loki?”

He lowered his lips next to my ear. “The kind where you are waiting for me when I return.”

I smiled. “You’re going soft, God of Mischief.”

“Only for my girl,” he whispered as I drifted off on the wings of slumber.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki's wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind, I cobbled this together from what I could dig up for Viking weddings, so don't quote me on it. Just enjoy the diabetic levels of fluff.

_Others think we’re opposites_

_Falling in and out of love_

_They all said we’d never last_

_But we managed to stay together_

_There’s no easy explanation for it_

_But whenever there’s a problem_

_We always work it somehow_

_Work it out somehow_

_They said it wouldn’t last_

_We had to prove ‘em wrong_

_‘Cause I’ve learned in the past_

_That love will never do without you!_

-“Love Will Never Do Without You” by Janet Jackson

“I know the answer to this question already, but I gotta ask.”

Tony aimed those brown eyes at me. I’d seen him give me a serious look maybe three times since we’d met, so I knew this was a big deal. “Are you sure about this?”

I smiled at him. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

Tony exhaled. “Figured you were. It’s just crazy. Never thought we’d end up here when I hired you on. Well, to be fair, I thought maybe I’d be a guest at your wedding, just never to Tall, Dark, and Goth-y.”

“Trust me, I wasn’t expecting it either.”

He snorted. “Well, I may not be thrilled it’s him, and I may always have some resentment for him deep down, but I can’t deny that he treats you like a queen. He’d move mountains and tear down the sky for you, so that’ll have to be enough for me.”

Tony took a deep breath. “I’m proud of you, kid. Proud to call you a colleague and a friend. I hope this is everything you ever wanted and more.”

I blinked back tears. “Thank you, Tony.”

He grinned. “Let’s get this show on the road, huh?”

Tony pushed the limousine’s door open and climbed out, offering his hand. I took it and carefully stepped onto the path leading into the rolling grass up ahead. It was brisk, but not too cold thanks to the time of day: sunset. My favorite. The Nordic sky had its best colors splashed across the horizon for all to enjoy.

I patted lightly at my skirts and checked that they hadn’t snagged on the car door before pushing it closed. My dress was the color of the snowflake necklace Loki had bought me—a vibrant amethyst gown handsewn by an Asgardian seamstress. It had a lovely lace pattern down the center with gemstones and diamonds woven in to glitter prettily, but not excessively. My hair was carefully curled and braided with a bellflower behind my right ear. A white fur stole lay across my shoulders to keep me warm.

I looped my arm through Tony’s and we walked up the grassy hill towards the rest of the wedding party. I could hear the roar of the ocean waves crashing against the cliff side and smelled the pleasant salty air, pleased as I spotted the gathering of friends and loved ones awaiting us at the crest of the hill. We hadn’t gone overboard; just my Avengers extended family and some of the Asgardians who had been close to the royal family for witnesses to the event. We’d set up nice, comfortable chairs and a path decorated with flowers that led up to where the rest of the wedding party stood.

Aria stood beside her mother, holding hands, waving excitedly at me as Tony and I begun down the aisle together, her little basket of flowers now empty. She and Val wore their formal Asgardian gowns and furs, each of them sporting crowns of the royal family.

Thor stood on the opposite side in his traditional Asgardian suit as well, adjusting his crown a bit as he was unused to it and only wore it for official occasions like weddings. He beamed with delight as he saw me, practically glowing with affection and pride. Heimdall stood in the center, his hands crossed at the wrists over the hilt of the Bi-Frost sword, his gaze also fond.

And then there was Loki.

Loki wore a black suit with subtle embellishments of gold and green and a white fur across his shoulders that matched my own. When his eyes found mine, I almost started to cry. I saw not a trace of the hurt nor worry nor anger that he sometimes wore in his features. He stared at me with complete and utter adoration, as if I were some kind of angel. It was laughable. After all, I was just a girl, not some powerful being descended from the heavens. Yet Loki’s expression told me that was exactly how he saw me.

Tony brought me to Loki and kissed my cheek, winking as he drew away. “Good luck, kiddo.”

He glanced at Loki and scowled. “Fuck this up and I’ll kill you.”

Loki rolled his eyes, but he smiled as he did it. “Acknowledged, Anthony.”

Tony slid on his shades and took his spot beside Pepper. Everyone sat down and Heimdall’s booming voice filled the clearing. “I welcome you, one and all, to the joining of Loki of Asgard and his beloved lady. Marriage is not to be taken lightly. It is the binding of life forces in this realm and in the realm eternal. Your souls will be bound together for a journey that is never-ending.”

Heimdall nodded to me. “My lady, present your sword to your husband.”

I turned to Valkyrie. She handed me the blade she’d been keeping with her, as well as the plain gold wedding band. I placed the ring on the hilt and presented it to Loki. “This is Elding. I hope it will protect you and be a symbol of a new beginning for you and for us.”

Loki took the sword and bowed to me before sliding on the ring and tying the sword to his hip. He retrieved a sword and a ring each from Thor and offered them to me as well. “This is Frami. I hope it will help you in your journey to become stronger and achieve your destiny at my side.”

I bowed my head and accepted the sword, sliding the wedding band onto my finger and donning the sword at my own hip. Heimdall inclined his head to us both. “Thus with the exchange of the rings and the swords do we now move to crown the members of the royal family. All rise.”

Our guests stood as Sif and Volstagg came forward holding cushions that had our crowns resting on them, gleaming in the dying sunlight. Loki had knocked it out of the park. My crown wasn’t ostentatious like some of the famous crowns of Britain. It appeared to be sculpted from platinum, a high sheen of both white and silver, decorated with opals that had a particular purplish hue to match my gown. He placed it on my head, brushing my cheek affectionately with his knuckle before pulling away. I plucked his crown from the cushion as well. His was pure gold with an insignia of his horned helmet at the center around a gorgeous emerald with filigree designs woven around the band. 

“We welcome you to the royal family, my lady,” Heimdall told me sincerely. “You are, as of this moment, a Princess of Asgard.”

The guests burst into applause that made me giggle and blush before I could help myself. Tony whistled a couple times, the idiot, and that made me laugh even harder.

“Finally, we will have words from the bride and groom before we conclude for the feast.” Heimdall gestured to me. “Ladies first.”

Oh, boy. I’d been dreading this part, but only because public speaking made me nervous by itself, forget confessing my undying love to the God of Mischief in front of my family. Loki noticed my hesitation and reached out enough to hold my hands. He smiled in encouragement and squeezed my fingers. Suddenly, I could breathe again.

“The first time we met, I wanted to punch you in the face.”

Loki grinned widely and the guests laughed heartily. I let the noise die down and then smiled up at him as well. “And I think that’s pretty significant, honestly. By that point in my life, I was pretty good at ignoring my feelings, but you demanded to be heard. I am very glad I decided to listen. I’m sure it must be strange that the trickster God of Mischief can make me feel so happy and whole. I think that’s the key to why this relationship works. You’ve never lied to me, Loki. You’ve never let your past become an excuse to treat me poorly. I know you’ve been used to being on your own, but you accepted my love and companionship and have respected me in return in a way that no one ever has. You’ve never asked me to be anything more than who I am. I can be myself with you. I’m not even sure I knew who I was until I met you. Thank you for helping me discover who I am. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey. I love you, Loki of Asgard.”

Loki lifted my hands and kissed the back of them one at a time before he spoke. “For a significant amount of time in my life, I thought I was a monster.”

My chest tightened upon hearing those words. “I thought there was nothing more for me to do but live up to that belief, to be as terrible and frightening and cold as the beast I thought myself to be. I had hardened my heart to be sure that nothing could change it, for I did not believe I was worthy enough to live any other kind of life.”

Loki smiled at me. “And you, ironically, melted my heart.”

He squeezed my fingers. “You challenged me. You showed me how to open my eyes and see that I was more than I thought I could be. I have never understood why the powers that be allowed me to have you in my life, for I do not deserve you, and yet here you are. You have helped me become the best version of myself that I can be. I feel worthy. Worthy enough for you and worthy enough for myself. I am in awe of your strength, your courage, your kindness, your beauty. I will devote my every waking moment to making sure that you are as happy as you have made me, my darling. I love you.”

Heimdall nodded again. “May the Allfather and our ancestors bless this union now and always. May your future be prosperous and joyous in all things.”

He then smiled. “And, in the spirit of Midgard, you may now kiss the bride.”

 _“Finally.”_ Loki grabbed me around the waist and hauled me to him, kissing me ravenously. I was laughing as he did, grateful tears pouring down my cheeks, my arms wrapped around my husband as the guests cheered wildly. If there was a such thing as a perfect moment in my life, well, this was pretty damn close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And no, this is not the final chapter, relax. We've got plenty more where that came from, including the honeymoon and the wedding night. Ehehehehehehe...
> 
> Special thanks to saiansha for helping me with headacanons and wedding plans.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one of Frosty and Loki's wedding night.

_For you, maybe I'm fool, but it's fun_

_People say you rule me with one wave of your hand_

_Darling, it's grand_

_They just don't understand_

_Living for you is easy living_

_It's easy to live_

_When you're in love_

_And I'm so in love_

_There's nothing in life but you!_

_-"Easy Living" by Billie Holiday_

__

Needless to say, I was pretty goddamn stoked for my wedding night with Loki.

As per usual, Loki had to be extra as fuck about our accommodations, so he made me wear a blindfold once we got inside the limousine after the feast. We’d partied until nearly the wee hours with friends and family. The Asgardians had bequeathed us a special wedding ale that was the most delicious alcohol I’d ever consumed, damn near ambrosia, so I was in quite the merry mood despite being blindfolded and having zero clue where we were headed.

Loki entertained me during the ride, giving me little kisses here and there, feeding me chocolate covered strawberries and more of that utterly wonderful wedding ale. I was surprised at how he’d restrained himself so far; I’d have expected him to roll up the divider between us and the driver and shove up my dress and go to town on me as soon as we left the wedding party. It seemed the serpent had found a level of patience that I hadn’t anticipated.

The limousine finally stopped and Loki kissed my left cheekbone, his voice humming with eager energy. “We are here, my love.”

He wrapped his fingers around my hand. I heard the click of the car door opening and then he guided me outside of the car. I felt the icy wind on my cheeks and knew we’d definitely gone up towards the mountain area. The car door shut. Loki’s warmth enveloped me from behind and he hugged me to his front. “Ready?”

“Ready,” I said.

He removed my blindfold. I blinked a few times and then my mouth fell open.

First, there was the sky. Brilliant green and purple hues danced across it. The Northern lights. My God. They left me breathless. I stared at them in wonder, marveling as the colors shifted in beautiful waves overhead.

I managed to tear my gaze from one of nature’s most stunning displays to find that we were in the driveway of an utterly quaint cabin. I could see the parts of the sea from where we stood and hear its calming roar in the distance. Warm golden lights beckoned from inside.

“Oh, Loki,” I whispered. “This is so beautiful.”

He kissed my temple. “I thought it would please you.”

“It’s so thoughtful.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat and squeezed his forearm. “Thank you.”

He slid around to my side and held my hand. “Come along, then, my darling.”

He nodded to the driver, who gathered our suitcases and followed along up the ramp to the entrance. Loki withdrew a key with a little tag on it and unlocked the door. I was about to step inside when he scooped me up in his arms. I let out a little startled yelp and held onto him, blinking up at his impish grin.

“I believe it is custom on Midgard to carry the bride through the threshold,” he said. “For good luck, right?”

I giggled. “Right.”

He ducked his head a little as he brought me into the cabin and then set me down. The driver slipped past us and set our things down in the bedroom. Loki paid him a generous tip and he wished us a happy honeymoon before taking his leave for the night. He’d be back in the morning to drive us out to the airfield.

The cabin was spacious and warmly decorated and furnished. It had a big fireplace surrounded by couches with heavy quilts across the back, perfect for snuggling. The kitchen was to the right. There was a screened in porch to the left overlooking the spectacular view. Loki let me have a look around before he took my hand again and led me to the bedroom. My heart rate jumped into the thousands as I followed him, somehow just as shy as the first time he’d taken me to bed.

The bedroom was just as luxurious as the rest of the house, with lavish furniture and lovely paintings on the walls. The mattress was a Queen size with patterned quilts on top and huge, soft pillows everywhere. It had a skylight above it as well to let one look up at the splendor of the Northern lights.

Loki flicked a hand and the door shut on its own. His arms snaked around my waist and he tugged me back against his solid chest, his lips warm and soft as he lay them against the shell of my ear.

“Now, I have you,” Loki whispered silkily. “Now, you are mine. Body and soul. My love. My _wife_.”

I broke into shivers all over. “And you are mine, husband.”

He exhaled and I heard the lust in the small groan that escaped with that one breath. “Whatever you desire shall be yours tonight, my pet. You have but to say the word and I will make your every dream come true. Every inch of me belongs to you this night and every inch of you belongs to me this night.”

“Good to know,” I breathed, already so excited that my voice came out shaky.

“What shall we do first?”

I chuckled hoarsely. “I assume you want to fuck me in my wedding dress.”

Loki laughed. “You know me too well. Do you trust me not to damage it?”

I shrugged. “Well, you’re magic. Just promise to mend it if it tears.”

“As you wish, my pet.” He reached up and undid the white fur from around my shoulders. He waved a hand again and the lamp flicked off. The room became illuminated with a mixture of the writhing purple and green of the Northern lights above us and the silver rays of the moon in the distance. Loki nudged me to walk in front of him over to the bed and then guided my hands to rest against the quilt on top. Again, it impressed me that he didn’t simply ravage me like I’d expected.

“I fear I cannot put into words how utterly ravishing you are in this dress, my love,” he murmured in my ear. “The very sight of you weakens me to the core. There are so many wicked things I wish to do to you. I don’t even know where to start. How shall I worship my goddess? Tell me.”

I fought to find my voice. “God, I don’t care how, just touch me, Loki. Anywhere you want. I’m yours.”

“Yes,” he hissed, his breath hot against my nape. “Mine. All mine.”

His fingers brushed my neck as he tugged my ponytail free and let my hair flutter into place. He gathered the heavy silk and velvet of my skirt in his hands, pulling it up an inch at a time. Cool air brushed my bare, smooth legs all the way up to my thighs. Once he had the dress up enough, he slid his hands across my thighs, petting them gently. He worked his way higher towards my hips, my waist, just barely nudging my ass with his hips. He was hard already. Good.

I whimpered as his hand slipped under the lace panties and his fingertips traced my slick entrance. I bit my lip to keep from screaming at him. I felt so empty. Want filled me. I needed him so badly it made me ache from deep within, like someone stranded in the desert dying of thirst.

Loki nuzzled my neck, inhaling my scent, lightly stroking me until more wetness pooled against his waiting fingers. “Good girl. So patient. So ready for me.”

He rolled the panties down my legs and I kicked them off my ankles at long last. Loki turned me around and sat me on the mattress, pushing the dress up over my upper thighs. The smile he wore was probably both illegal and blasphemous, it was so lustful. Something about him closing in on me fully clothed in his Asgardian suit made me quiver from within.

“Wicked pet,” he chided lightly as he ran his fingertips up and down over me, coating them with my essence. “Enticing me with your beauty like the sirens of legend. I cannot wait to seek out my revenge for such an offense.”

His smile widened. “Lie back for me, wife. Let your husband attend to his obligations.”

I kicked off my heels and reclined on my elbows, spreading my thighs further apart. Loki remained standing, for the bed was up on a frame that was high enough for him to reach me easily, and cupped my outer thighs in those big, pale hands of his. My pulse thudded in my ears as I watched my husband close in on me with those blue-green eyes sparkling with mischief under the ethereal Northern lights.

Loki’s hot mouth enveloped my clit first, delivering a slow lick against it with the flat of his tongue that made my entire body tense up as the initial wave of pleasure almost blew my brain out of my skull. I bit my lip to trap a scream. He closed his lips over me and sucked softly, dragging the tip of his tongue up against my slippery walls and then circling my clit relentlessly until I couldn’t help but moan loudly as it sent lightning bolts of pure heat crackling through me. Loki tugged my legs up onto his shoulders and then rested a hand over my lower belly. The heat of his hand bled through the material of the dress, making me restless to feel skin on skin, but I would have to wait. He pushed the skirt higher and then rested his thumb over my clit as he slid downward towards his intended target. My head rolled back as his tongue delved inside me at last, and a surge of utter bliss cascaded over me. “God, Loki, yes.”

He withdrew his tongue and bit a kiss mark into my right thigh. “Mm, that’s it, little pet. Moan for me. I want to hear you scream your husband’s name this night.”

He stroked my clit as he returned to me with ravenous hunger, licking, sucking, nibbling, devouring me piece by piece. I writhed on the bed in ecstasy, no longer worrying about any inhibitions. We were alone up here and I had him all to myself. I could be as loud as I wanted, as unfettered as I wanted, here with him. He chased my pleasure like a bloodhound on a scent, his tongue plunging into my melting center again and again until I cursed him to the heavens and buried my fingers in his thick mane.

“Loki, please,” I begged, too frustrated and keyed up after he’d repeatedly pushed me to the edge and stopped just short of making me come. “Please, I’m so close.”

“Does my worship not please you, my goddess?” he teased with a lascivious grin, licking those soft lips clean.

“You goddamn tease,” I said, my cheeks burning. “Play with me if you want, but I’ll do the same to you.”

“I look forward to it.” He turned his head and planted an identical kiss mark on my left thigh. I whined at the sweet combination of pain and pleasure. “You know what I want, darling. Give it to me and I shall reward you.”

“Loki,” I whined, pushing my hips up towards him, but he didn’t move towards them.

“Ah, ah,” he tutted. “You know the rules, pet.”

I let out a frustrated noise, blushing madly that he would do this to me on our wedding night, but then again, God of Mischief. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to say his favorite words. “Please, my prince. Please make me come.”

His voice turned even more ragged with lust. “Make who come?”

I blushed even harder. “M-Make your good girl come.”

Loki let out a low, satisfied laugh. “Again, darling.”

“Make your good girl come.”

He squeezed my thighs. “Look at me and say it, darling.”

I whined again, but he didn’t relent. I managed to open my eyes enough to meet his heated gaze. “Please, Loki. I want to come. Your good girl wants to come.”

“That’s it,” he cooed, his lashes dark as they framed those mad, devious eyes of his. “Keep going.”

His mouth returned to my cunt and I screamed, arching up from the bed as his tongue pushed me even closer to my climax. He pressed down hard against my spot and growled against my sopping wet walls, sucking harder, wordlessly demanding that I obey. “Yes, yes, fuck, Loki, please! I’m a good girl! I’m a good girl, ah, _ah_ , please, Loki! Please let me come!”

“Fuck,” he groaned out on an odd breath and then angled two fingers inside me as his mouth traveled up to surround my clit again. “Yes, my darling. Come. Come for your Loki like a good girl.”

I evaporated into stardust.

Or at least that’s what the climax felt like.

The ecstasy left me a trembling mess on the bed, panting harder than ever, my nerves completely saturated with pleasure. Loki’s eyes burned as he stared up at me, watching me come on his fingers and mouth, all pale and predatory. I knew what he was about to do even before he did it and did nothing to stop it because it was exactly what I wanted.

He stood to full height and unlaced his trousers, freeing his cock. He grabbed me around the waist and dragged me closer to the edge of the bed, latching onto my bare hips beneath the dress. He wedged his cock between my damp inner thighs and tapped it against my belly, his breathing just as erratic as my own.

“Say it,” he demanded, digging his fingers into me hard enough to bruise. “Say it, darling.”

“Fuck me, Loki.”

He angled himself into me with a guttural growl. I arched up from the bed with a shivering moan of sheer and utter want as his cock burrowed into me so easily from how wet I’d gotten, filling every bit of me until I thought I’d burst. He reached up and tore the upper half of the bodice down underneath my chest, exposing my bra. The material bunched at my upper arms, pinning them to my sides and leaving me helpless in his grip.

Loki licked the edge of his lips as he stared down at my vulnerable body. “There is nothing in all the Nine Realms as beautiful as you, my darling.”

Then he fucked me into oblivion.

“Oh, God, fuck, _Loki!”_

I could do nothing but grab at the quilt underneath me as he pounded into me savagely, his thrusts aimed directly at my throbbing core, his hips crashing against my ass, filling the air with the sharp slap of skin on skin. Every inch of me sang with pleasure. I drowned in it. Nothing existed except for this—except for him—and the way he made me feel. Each time, I thought it couldn’t feel any better, but it did, second after second, minute after minute, his sex powerful and frightening and all-consuming. I couldn’t hold it together any longer, unraveled by his ruthless pursuit of ecstasy.

“Loki, please!” I sobbed. “Oh, God, please, Loki!”

“Yes,” he snarled in between harsh breaths, his hands creeping up the bed until they landed on either side of my head. He bent me in half and fucked into me harder still, the frame of the bed shuddering from the strength of his thrusts. “Look at me, darling. Open those pretty eyes for me.”

I whimpered and struggled to obey the command, but did so. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his regal clothing disheveled, his eyes aglow from so close. He was too much for me, a mere mortal. He was an overdose of heaven and hell at the same time.

“Now come,” Loki ordered. “Come for me, my darling.”

He kissed me and then whispered tenderly, “Come for me, my little wife.”

I came undone.

I bucked up into him, finding the rhythm he’d built, clenching my inner walls around his twitching cock as hard as I possibly could. Loki roared into my mouth and grabbed my hips again, rocking me onto him frantically as his cock pulsed rapidly and then he finally released us both. I heard the dress tear as I wriggled my arms free enough to throw them around his neck and keep him pinned to me as I kissed him through the throes of passion, moaning piteously as I surrendered to the storm of his sex. I mewled and pushed him as deep as he could reach as he spilled come into me over and over, claiming me as he had so many times before, yet this time it meant so much more. My Loki. My husband. All mine.

There was no telling about how long it took us to come down from the orgasm. Not that it mattered. I stirred as Loki kissed the edge of my jaw with a sigh of elation. Words flowed out of him with an affection that nearly made me cry.

_“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,  
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,  
The more I have, for both are infinite.” _

I ran my fingers through his hair and let out a light chuckle. “Trust you to quote Shakespeare after fucking the hell out of your wife in your wedding bed.”

Loki chuckled as he lifted his face over mine. “Does it displease you, princess?”

“Not even slightly, my prince.”

I kissed him softly.

_“Doubt thou the stars are fire;  
Doubt that the sun doth move;  
Doubt truth to be a liar;  
But never doubt I love.”_

He stroked my cheek. “I would never dare to, my goddess.”

“Good.” Then I gave him my most evil smile. “Now roll over. It’s payback time, husband.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once more, big thanks to saiansha for the idea of where the wedding night shenanigans would take place.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki's wedding night continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you've read chapter two of "Cold." Because I made a promise and now I finally get to keep it, ehehehehehe.

_Lips as sweet as candy_

_Its taste is on my mind_

_Girl, you got me thirsty for another cup of wine_

_Got a bug from you, girl_

_But I don't need no cure_

_I'll just stay a victim_

_If I can for sure_

_All the good love when we're all alone_

_Keep it up, girl_

_Yeah, you turn me on_

_-"Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede_

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this day,” I said sweetly as I clipped the second handcuff onto the wrist of my husband. “I wasn’t sure when to pull that receipt, but I think this worked out perfectly.”

Loki pursed his lips. “I should have known you would not forget my offer. I suppose you are looking forward to making me squirm, aren’t you, my little wife?”

I nearly sighed. The words still hit me just right. It sounded so good from his lips. I had to concentrate on replying to the question. “Yep. I’ve spent countless nights at your mercy, after all. This is long overdue. And if I only get to do it once, I want it to be memorable.”

“I assure you I will forget nothing about this experience,” he said, narrowing his eyes slightly. “So you had better be on your best behavior, pet. I am not afraid of retaliating.”

I batted my lashes at him. “Why, don’t you trust me, husband dear?”

He smirked. “Of course, my love. As much as you trust me.”

I chuckled. “Touché.”

I sat back across his thighs and gave him a sly, simmering smile that I knew he loved. “Now be a good boy and we’ll get started.”

Loki licked his lips. “Very well, darling.”

My wedding dress had mostly survived his vicious but pleasurable assault from earlier. He’d promised to mend it after our shenanigans, but I wasn’t keen to ruin it any further, so I reached back and unzipped it slowly. The loose cloth pooled around my hips, revealing the fetching green and black lace that made up my bra. I’d gone to great lengths to find an Asgardian undergarment that suited me. It was hand stitched and custom made, accentuating my curves, but also drawing attention to the skill and beauty with which it had been made. I’d nearly cried when I saw it and had hugged the seamstress once I’d tried the lingerie set on. I supposed I could put the panties back on—Loki had torn them off without looking at them much—but he’d have plenty of time in the future to appreciate them.

Loki growled hungrily as I shimmied out of the dress and shifted restlessly underneath me. I’d had him strip naked when he’d gotten on the bed, so his cock twitched where it lay flat to his pelvis. His long fingers flexed his hands open and closed. I hadn’t bothered with normal cuffs—he could break them no sweat—and had instead borrowed a pair of fun-time restraints from Valkyrie. Loki wouldn’t be able to break them even with all his strength, so I was free to do as I pleased without worrying about it.

“I had an idea,” I purred as I crawled up over his lap, sticking my chest out just to watch his breathing increase and his pupils dilate.

“Yes?”

I held my first finger and thumb about an inch apart. My magic swirled and created a thin band of ice the exact thickness of Loki’s cock in diameter. “Since you’re comfortable with the cold, I thought this might be a bit of fun for a while. What do you say?”

His dark lashes fluttered. “I think that sounds marvelous.”

I spilled a bit more magic into it, basically ensuring that it wouldn’t melt for a while, and then slipped it inside my mouth to wet it. I popped it out and gripped his cock to stand it upright, fixing my gaze on his face for the reaction. I slid it down over the length of him.

Loki’s spine bowed. He arched off the bed and threw his head back, moaning out my name. God help me, it was fucking sexy. He fell into shallow breaths for a moment or two, adjusting to the cold around his cock, and then sunk into the mattress again when he was stable once more. I stroked him leisurely until little impatient noises left him and he rattled the restraints against the headboard, tossing an accusatory glare at me. “You little tease.”

“Takes one to know one.” I spun the cock ring around the base of his length once and he hissed through his teeth, his cheeks flushing a lovely shade of pink. I wasn’t really a dominant lover, but I was starting to see why he enjoyed toying with me so much. His reactions were priceless.

Finally, I lowered my head and ran my tongue up the underside of his cock. Loki released a guttural growl once again and his hips snapped up on impulse, seeking the heat of my mouth. I didn’t deny him this time. I brought him inside my mouth and swallowed him until my lips brushed against the icy cock ring, relaxing my jaw and neck until I was deep-throating him. I heard the cuffs clanking against the headboard again and almost giggled. He was frustrated. Good.

“Fuck,” Loki gasped out when I withdrew the first time, circling his tip with my tongue.

I lifted my brows innocently. “More?”

“Yes,” he breathed. “Gods, yes, more, darling.”

I grinned. “Say please.”

He groaned. “Damn you.”

“It’s your favorite word to make me say,” I insisted as I continued running my fingers along the hot column of flesh, cooler near the root, which felt rather interesting. “It’s only fair.”

“Gods are not supposed to beg, you know.”

“You’re not begging. You’re asking.”

He rolled his eyes. “It is very much the same thing.”

“Well, if you don’t want to play along, I can always…” I began sliding away from him as if I were going to get up and he grunted in dissent.

“Don’t you dare. I’ll have you over my knee if you even think of deserting me here.”

I scoffed. “You can’t get out of those on your own.”

He gave me a smug look. “Am I not the God of Mischief, pet? My reputation would not be what it is if I couldn’t slip a simple pair of manacles.”

“Stop sassing me and say it, serpent.”

He grumbled something under his breath and then ground out, “Please.”

“So difficult.” I tucked my hair behind one ear and settled myself over him again. I cupped his balls in my other hand and sucked him down a second time, hollowing out my cheeks. Loki’s pale, gorgeous form shuddered all over. He clamped his eyes shut and gripped the headboard to try to withstand the sensation of my mouth all over him, of the ice chilling his skin, of my hands pleasuring him over and over as he had done to me.

He held out for an impressive amount of time, but eventually I felt his cock throbbing in warning and he spoke again, his voice ragged with need and desire. “I’m going to come, darling. You must stop.”

“I want you to come, Loki,” I whispered, squeezing him harder, speeding up my fingers. “Come for me.”

He shook his head. “No, darling, please.”

“Come, Loki,” I urged him. “I want you to do it. I want to please you. Let me please you, my love.”

“Fuck,” he groaned, shaking underneath me. “Darling, please, don’t say such things.”

“I know you want it, Loki,” I breathed in my most sultry tone. “I know you want to come down my throat. Don’t you, you naughty boy? You want to come inside your wife’s mouth.”

“Fuck!” He bit his bottom lip and arched up against me again. “Yes, darling, I want it. I want to come down your throat and listen to you swallow every single drop.”

My eyes almost rolled back in my head. I cooled my tongue a few degrees and took him inside my mouth a final time, sucking as hard as I could manage. Loki roared in elation and immediately came, his cock releasing jet after jet of the hot liquid into me. He let out a string of curses in Old Norse and writhed on the bed, only stilling after a couple of minutes. Once I was sure he was finished, I let him go and cleaned my mouth on the sheets.

“Mm, you are a terror,” Loki slurred, his eyes still closed, that tall, sculpted frame entirely relaxed on the bed like a panther resting after a meal. “I should not have allowed this to happen.”

I giggled. “Underestimated me, did you?”

“Woefully underestimated you,” he admitted, his glittering eyes opening to give me a wanton, but affectionate look. “Come here, my little kitten. Kiss me.”

I wriggled my way up his body and met his soft lips in a kiss. He kissed me passionately and thoroughly, angling his mouth towards my throat when he was done. “That was perfect. You are perfect.”

He bit down lightly. “And I cannot wait for you to fuck me.”

He nudged his still-hard cock against my pelvis. “Fuck me, pet. Fuck me here in our wedding bed. I want to watch you ride me.”

I shuddered. He could still somehow be commanding even in the submissive role. That did Things to me in Places. I ran my hands across his magnificent chest and kissed him again, pressing into his warmth as much as possible. I listened to the rolling purrs of desire that escaped him and let the sounds flow over me until I was just as desperate and eager as him to continue our heathen coupling.

I aligned myself with him and pushed onto his cock, not stopping until the icy bite of the cock ring spilled its coolness against my sensitive outer edges. Loki ground his hips underneath me in impatient circles, jerking upward as if trying to fit even more of himself inside me. Fuck, it felt so good. He was scorching hot inside me and the pleasure engulfed me from head to toe. If I had more control, I’d have gone slow and continued tormenting him, but I didn’t want to. I wanted him hard and fast and recklessly so.

I balanced over him, planting my hands in the pillows on either side of his head, and all but threw my weight down onto him. His cock split me so sharply, so acutely, that I screamed on the first thrust, my head going back on its own. “Fuck!”

“Yes,” he urged hoarsely. “That’s it, darling. Take it. However you want it. However you want me.”

Loki lifted his face enough to kiss me, catching the next yelp of praise that escaped me as he spread his legs to widen his stance and pounded his cock into me each time I sank down to meet him. The bed lurched loudly on every stroke as the two of us moved in sync, chasing after the ecstasy as if we could never have enough of it. Every nerve in my body felt like sparks shot out of them every time he thrust into me. I could hear my muffled mewls against his lips and everything in me never wanted to stop. I let my own greedy, savage nature take over and swiveled my hips, clenching over his cock to drive those inhuman groans out of him one at a time. The pleasure sharpened to a fine point, right up the center of my body, too powerful to ignore.

“There, right there, yes, my goddess, take it,” Loki rasped. “Take what you need. I give it freely.”

My arms trembled with the strain of holding myself above him. “L-Loki, God, you feel so good.”

“Mm, you feel even better, darling.”

He circled his hips again and I cried out. “Oh, God, Loki, I’m—”

The climax stole the last of my air. I shuddered violently above him as my slippery inner walls collapsed over him and squeezed, releasing us both. Loki moaned deliciously loud into my neck as he came inside me, jerking hard into me, trying to shove himself as deep as he could reach from this angle. I flattened my shaking form on top of him and whimpered with joy as bliss shot through my veins like heroin. It took me minute to stop grinding against him to extract every drop of sweetness he offered. Damn it all, I loved this man.

I didn’t rouse until I heard an unusual sound; the chain on the cuffs jingling with movement and then Loki’s warm flesh shifting under me.

Then, somehow, he flipped me over.

My eyes popped open then. I found him straddling me on the bed with his hands still cuffed, but no longer around the headboard. He grinned at me as he quickly caught my wrists and pinned them over my head before I could do anything to stop it.

“Loki,” I fussed. “That’s cheating.”

“Technically, no, it’s not,” he drawled. “I am still in the cuffs, am I not?”

I huffed. “Control freak.”

“Mm, it’s your fault,” he sighed as he buried his face in my hair. “You’ve made me crazed for more. I must have you again. I must have this sweet, wet little cunt around me again.”

I couldn’t come up with a rebuttal in time, for he slipped inside me again and I lost the ability to think. He buried his cock deep, so deep I whined, so deep my toes curled, so deep all I could see was white for several seconds. He’d all but trained my body by now; my thighs parted for him immediately to give him the room to do as he pleased before I could help it. He let the bulk of his weight hold me down against the bed and slid his knees up, locking me into his deadliest position: missionary. I couldn’t even pretend like I didn’t want it; a flood of wetness leaked out around his cock the next time he pulled out. He’d trapped me so easily and yet I could scarcely breathe from how much it turned me on to be caught this way.

“Mm, this lovely quim,” Loki growled in my ear as he shoved himself inside me again and drove a little yelp out as he went. “You’re always so ready for my cock, aren’t you, darling? Like hot, wet silk, you are. Inviting me in the way you do. I could fuck you for a thousand lifetimes and never have enough.”

“Loki, please, I can’t last long this way,” I mumbled weakly, squirming in vain as his thrusts picked up speed one at a time, pummeling my sensitive cunt more and more, driving me crazy.

“Don’t last,” he ordered. “Give in. Give in to me, darling. Come again. Even harder this time. I know you want it. I know you want me to claim you.”

He slid his lips down to my throat and sucked a kiss mark into my skin as he threw caution to the wind and fucked me into the bed, hard, fast, unrelenting. “Come for me. Come for me, my little wife.”

I shattered at last, undulating beneath him in the throes of another orgasm, so sharp and sweet and strong that I all but lost myself to him. He joined me immediately, squeezing my wrists as his come filled me again, whispering how much he loved me as he did. I blindly sought his lips and kissed him with abandon, not holding back in the slightest, for he didn’t want me to either.

Slowly but surely, our bodies cooled on the sheets. He let me go and I wrapped my arms around his neck, snuggling my face beneath his chin as I cuddled him. He chuckled softly and kissed the top of my head, brushing my hair off of my forehead. “Tuckered you out, have I?” he teased.

“For now,” I sighed as I listened to the steady thrum of his heartbeat and the relaxing cadence of his breathing. “But that wasn’t bad for Round Two.”

“Indeed. Sleep, little wife. More adventures await in the morning.”

I smiled as his words warmed me through and through. “Good night to you as well, husband.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty convinces Loki that it's time to face an aspect of his past and gets some help from a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What follows is a lot of headcanons that I have mixed with discussions that saiansha and I have had about the pre-Thor era of Asgard, so keep that in mind.

_Hands are shaking cold_

_These hands are meant to hold_

_Speak to me_

_When all ya gotta keep is strong_

_Move along, move along, like I know ya do_

_And even when your hope is gone_

_Move along, move along, just to make it through_

_Move along!_

_Move along!_

_-"Move Along" by The All American Rejects_

I thought my wedding bed would be nothing but a place of utter bliss.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

By now, after so many years, I was used to the feeling of Loki draped around me as I slept, so the first warning sign was that I woke up a little cool, not pressed against his warmth. I’d woken up when I heard his voice, but not as if he were speaking to me. He was muttering something under his breath, shifting restlessly, his back to me with his shoulders hunched.

Oh no. Another nightmare. God help him.

I pushed up onto my knees and scooted closer to him, my voice hoarse with sleep. “Loki, sweetheart, wake up, come on.”

He flinched when my hand landed on his shoulder, his brows furrowed, fingers forming claws in the sheets, cold sweat on his forehead. “No. Not her. Not her too. Don’t take her from me.”

I swallowed hard and yanked on his shoulder to roll him onto his back. “Loki, please, it’s me, wake up!”

Loki gave a start and his eyes popped open finally. The utter panic and despair on his features for that split second before he woke broke my heart. I carefully flattened him beneath me and straddled his lap, stroking his cheek and whispering, “Shh, it’s alright, I’m here, breathe, just breathe.”

I lay my other hand over his bare chest and kept it there. His heart raced. I’d never seen Loki have a panic attack before, but I got the feeling that he’d have descended into one if I hadn’t been here. He shut his eyes and held onto my arms as his panting slowed down.

“Loki,” I murmured, stroking his cheekbone. “I know you don’t want to talk about this, but as your wife, I feel like I have to ask you to reconsider. This isn’t the first time you’ve had this nightmare. Something’s bothering you. I want to help. Let me help.”

Loki swallowed. “My darling, I—”

“Please don’t say that you’re fine. You’re not fine. You’re strong. We both know that. But where you fall short is being vulnerable. You always want to hold things in and deal with them yourself. I get that. I’m like that too sometimes.”

My eyes burned with tears. “But you’re hurting, Loki. I can’t just sit by and watch you hurt.”

He stared up at me, silent, until my tears fell. He exhaled and slowly sat up, propping his back against the headboard. He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and stroked it lightly where it rested near his cheek. I didn’t rush him. We held each other’s gaze for a while and gradually, he relaxed.

“In the dream, I am…home in Asgard. In the maternity suite. You are with child, about to give birth.”

Loki licked his lips. “There are…complications. You start to slip away from me. I can feel it. But I cannot do anything to stop it. My magic is useless. I stand there and watch you die because of my child. Because of me.”

“Oh, God, Loki,” I choked out. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, my love,” he told me. “These fears fester in me. I did not want to trouble you with them, for I did not want you to think that you were the cause.”

I rested my forehead against his. “I know you didn’t, but I’m your wife, Loki. Your burden is my burden. My burden is yours. Let me help you carry it. Talk to me.”

“I…believe that my origins may be why I fear that you will die bearing my child. Odin’s magic changed me, but I do not know how deeply his magic extends within my soul and being. I fear that the child may be a Frost Giant, or even half Frost Giant, and it will be too much for you to bear. I would never want harm to come to you in pursuit of creating a family for us.”

“Then maybe it’s time we have that difficult conversation we’ve been avoiding for so long.”

He frowned a bit. “Pardon?”

“The one about your…” I took a deep breath. “…birth mother.”

Loki’s expression hardened. “I see. Have you had thoughts on the matter that you have neglected to share with me?”

“Yes. I think it may be worth it to find out who she is. Maybe it might alleviate some of your worries if you knew who she is and what happened the night that Odin found you.”

“I do not see how meeting the woman who abandoned me will make me feel better, not worse.”

“Loki, it may not be that simple,” I asserted. “She may not have had a choice. We don’t have to do anything. I am only making a suggestion. I want you to find peace. That’s all.”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“This may not be the road to hell, Loki. Only to the truth. The truth is neither good nor evil.”

Several emotions flitted through his face. Some of them pained me to see, but I held my ground. He sighed and glanced aside. “There was a time, once, when Thor and I went out drinking after Ragnarok. He asked me if I ever wanted to find her, to find out the whole truth about how I came to be in Odin’s possession, and I told him no out of respect for Frigga’s memory. Frigga was an admirer of the truth. Of wisdom. Of acceptance.”

Loki met my eyes again. “Do you think she would want me to find out the truth?”

“She would want you to find peace. That’s all I know.”

Loki kissed my palm. “Very well. After our honeymoon, then we shall find answers, if there are any.”

He kissed my lips next. “Thank you, my darling.”

I almost squeaked as he snuck his other hand beneath the sheets and caressed me, his smile widening. “Shall I lull you back to sleep?”

“Oh, stop it, serpent,” I huffed, blushing. “There will be plenty of time for mischief after we’ve rested.”

He chuckled as he lay down beside me. “As you wish, my goddess.”

* * *

“I have never envied you so much before.”

I snorted. “Since when have you ever envied me at all, your highness?”

“Loads of times,” Thor insisted without looking up from my cell phone, flipping through our honeymoon photos on Elysian V. Loki had surprised me by taking me to a little world he’d found out about that was famous for its utopian qualities. Elysian V was basically one huge beach planet with a sky that always looked like sunrise and certain parts of its jungles had low gravity, which was why he’d taken me there. I’d gotten the chance to fly without a pair of thrusters or Thor carrying me. It had been incredible and fun and I’d hated to return home after spending a week languishing in the sunlight in my husband’s arms or making slow, passionate love under the stars in the evening. It had been, as promised, paradise.

“In addition to this wonderful trip, the way you wield your ice magic makes me terribly jealous. You do it with such finesse. I could never wield my lightning that way.”

“And,” I said as I poured us both some homemade lemonade. “I’d kill for your ability to fly and that perfectly round ass of yours, so we’re even.”

Thor gave me that boisterous laugh, his eye twinkling as he accepted the glass and took a sip. “I believe we are even in the latter department.”

I rolled my eyes and he made as if to pinch my bum, which just made me laugh in turn. “You’re just as bad as your brother sometimes.”

“Do not tell a soul, my lady. It will ruin my reputation.” He handed me the phone. “I am so overjoyed that you had a lovely honeymoon. Though I confess, I missed you terribly.”

“Same,” I said as I hopped up on the stool beside him.

“But,” he continued, smiling. “I suspect that is not the only reason you called me over here.”

“Hey,” I said, offended. “I am making you lunch too. Give me some credit, Lord of Thunder.”

“Aye, I’m only teasing. What’s on your mind?”

I blew out a breath. “I convinced Loki that we should try to find out who his birth mother is.”

Thor’s single eye widened considerably. “Gods. That must have been a mighty task.”

“Well, I was naked at the time.”

“I am sure that was very persuasive.” I punched him lightly and he smiled before continuing. “This is going to be quite the task. How can I help?”

“Loki said you’d asked him this same thing once. What did you have in mind?”

“Some of the elders of Asgard know things about Jotunheim that may help us piece together the night that Odin found Loki. I thought perhaps retracing those steps would lead to a name. If they do not, then it becomes much harder.”

“How so?”

He sighed. “If the elders do not know, then you would have to ask the Jotuns themselves.”

I stared at him. “Are you crazy?”

“I know how it sounds.”

“Yeah, it would be impossible. To my knowledge, Jotunheim never tried to invade Asgard after Loki assassinated Laufey, but they sure as hell don’t want to see another Asgardian step foot on Jotunheim again. Even if that hadn’t happened, why would they ever even consider talking to us? They have no reason to divulge the private life of Laufey.”

“I agree, certainly, but Jotunheim has still be been rebuilding its empire since the destruction caused by the Bi-Frost. I believe for a price, they may be willing to cooperate to an extent. Loki has never tried to reclaim the throne, so it may give him just a small amount of leniency from them.”

I shook my head. “There is no amount of gold that will make them forget Laufey’s murder.”

“Yes, I know, but it may just be enough to buy you some time to ask questions and then get the bloody hell out of there. It would be a perfect opportunity for retaliation as well, so you must ask yourself how important this is to you both. If it is worth the risks. I am more than willing to accompany you just to discourage them, but I fear my presence would only agitate them into not cooperating.”

I patted his arm. “No, it’s alright. If we go, you’d be the cavalry hidden in the shadows somewhere. I don’t want you getting hurt on our account either. The Frost Giants hit hard and they don’t play nice.”

“Indeed.” He took another sip of the lemonade. “I hope it helps. I know this will be hard for him. Hard for you both.”

I shrugged. “It’s worth it if it helps him feel more secure about our future. And you know me. I’d give anything to find my family if I had the chance. I just don’t want him to regret it.”

I bit my lip. “And I’d rather he do it while I’m still here. That way if anything goes wrong, I can comfort him.”

Thor nudged me with his shoulder. “Don’t be so maudlin. You’re not entirely human, you know. Perhaps your ice magic will allow you to live a thousand years or more.”

“Uh-huh. You just want to be able to pester me for that long.”

“Of course. ‘Tis my favorite hobby, in fact.” Thor leaned over and kissed my forehead. I blinked up at him.

“What was that for?”

“Thank you for taking care of my brother.” His words paired with the affectionate look on his face made me warm through and through. “You have such a kind heart, milady.”

I blinked back tears. “Back atcha, big guy.”

I cleared my throat and wiped my eyes. “So where do we start?” 

“First you must feed me—” he said, grinning. “—and then I shall see if I can gather some of the elders together this evening to meet with us.”

“Got it.” I headed over to the stove and grabbed the massive hamburgers off the grill, then set about fixing them for us. I made Thor four of them and took one for myself. “One thing I’ve wondered is how come no one figured out Loki was adopted? Wouldn’t Frigga have just suddenly shown up with another son after the war?”

“No. You see, Frigga had been placed safely underground in the months leading up to the final conflict. The public had not seen her enough to know she was not with child at the time. I was a baby as well when Odin brought him home, so I would not have known either. The only ones who could have known would have been Frigga’s closest handmaidens and they would have been sworn to secrecy.”

“I see. And what about Odin’s magic that he used on Loki?”

“Odin’s abilities ranged far and wide as I knew them. He could wield power magic, as I do, and other spells as you have seen Loki perform. No one truly knew the extent of them, but my theory is that he infused his life force with Loki and it changed him into an Asgardian. The casket’s power reverted Loki back to what he was before when he touched it, but I believe that Loki is not entirely a Jotun.”

I piled French fries onto the plates next and headed back to the island counter. “What makes you say that?”

“For as long as I have known about Jotunheim, I have never heard of I suppose what one would very rudely call a ‘runt’ of the litter. I find it unusual that Loki as an infant would be the size of an Asgardian infant if it did not in some way relate to his bloodline.”

I nodded, chewing thoughtfully before I spoke. “So you think Loki was only half-Jotun?”

“Aye.”

“Me too. I always thought it had something to do with his ability to wield magic, but could that have been passed on from Odin?”

“Quite possibly, yes. But it very well could have been passed down by his birth mother.”

I winced. “How do you think we should try to discuss this with him? The only thing he’s more touchy about than you is his heritage.”

“Aye, we will have to be as delicate as possible. I know he loved Frigga with his whole heart and to investigate anything about his birth mother must make him feel as if he is dishonoring her memory. I promise I shall try to be as sensitive as I can.”

“Me too. Hopefully, your elders won’t hold his past actions against him. I know many of them still haven’t forgiven him for imitating Odin for as long as he did.”

“The work Loki has done with the Avengers and his hand in helping to defeat Thanos has helped,” Thor admitted, now on burger number three, to my great amusement. “But there are some who blame him for betraying them and exiling Odin, for they feel it contributed to his death. The ones I have in mind are those who regard him favorably, but they do like to keep him honest. You may have met them at the reception for my wedding, Rose and Iris?”

“Yes, you’re right, I remember them. They drank more ale than I did. Tough little old ladies. They were historians, right?”

“Aye, they worked in the palace library, so they should be able to point us in the right direction.” He drained the lemonade and eyed the glass. I pointed a finger at him and glared.

“Don’t you dare.”

Thor laughed. “Just testing you, my lady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adorable, supportive Thor is mah jam.
> 
> Also, buckle up. Here comes some more backstory headcanons and some feels.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty, Loki, and Thor find out the dark secrets surrounding Loki's possible parentage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for slavery and mentioned off-screen non-con impregnation. I'm afraid it gets pretty dark, but it's never described or shown, I promise. Hang in there. Rough seas ahead. Once again, thanks to saiansha for helping me flush out my headcanons.

_I was walking down an empty road_

_With you right by my side_

_Then I took your hand_

_And I held her tight_

_To the ends of the earth, we ride_

_-"Ends of the Earth" by T.T. MacGruber_

“Remind me again why it is necessary for the oaf to be present?”

“Because the oaf is the one who arranged the meeting and the sisters happen to like him,” I replied with a glare in my husband’s direction. “Fancy that. Some people actually find Thor charming, as impossible as it is to believe.”

“At last, we agree on something.” I flicked him in the ear. “Ow!”

“Be nice, danger noodle,” I insisted. “It’s bad enough you’ve been biting my head off for the last hour. I’m not going to let you be rude to the people who are helping us.”

Loki rubbed his ear. “Fine. I will attempt to behave myself, but if they stir up trouble themselves, I will not be held responsible for my actions.”

“Yes, you bloody will,” Thor said as he opened the car door on his side and unfolded his enormous frame. He offered his hand to me and I stepped out as well just because it would irritate my cranky husband more. I was petty sometimes. “Rose and Iris are treasured members of Asgard and you will not upset them with your sharp tongue.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “My tongue is none of your concern, brother. Only my wife’s.”

Thor glared, which made Loki smirk. Thor then offered his arm to me and smiled warmly. “My dear?”

“Why, thank you, Thor,” I said as I looped my arm through his. Loki’s smirk vanished. I decided to dig the knife a little deeper and batted my lashes at him. “It’s so nice to see some men still remember how to be gentlemen.”

“Anything for you, darling,” Thor lilted as we headed up the driveway together, pretending not to notice Loki’s childish glowering along the way.

Rose and Iris lived in an adorable cottage-style home in the suburbs, not far from the Asgardian colony that had been established on a property not too far from the Avengers facility. They were still trying to decide where to put down permanent roots, but in the meantime, they stayed close by in a miniature town away from prying eyes.

I knocked and a moment later, the door opened on two lovely dark-skinned women with long silver locs and wide, friendly smiles. Rose stood on the left and wore an off-white gown while Iris stood on the right in an identical blue gown.

“Good evening,” they chorused, and then Rose took over. “It is an honor to receive the royal family into our home.”

The three of us bowed our heads in respect and Thor spoke up. “I appreciate your hospitality.”

He offered them the basket he’d been carrying under his arm, gift wrapped and packed to burst with a couple wine bottles, fine cheeses, and candied fruits. “A gift for our generous hostesses.”

Iris accepted it. “Thank you so much, your majesty. Please come in. The dining room is to your right.”

Rose and Iris’ home had a warm, comfortable aura to it, with wood paneling and hardwood floors decorated with paintings. It smelled of fresh wildflowers and cinnamon. The ceilings were high and every inch of the place was spotless. The dining room had been set up for everyone with a long table covered in a black tablecloth and it was laden with a huge spread of food and wine. Rose and Iris apparently knew that Thor could put it away like an NFL team, for there were four kinds of roasted meats and a smorgasbord of side dishes, all of which I recognized as Asgardian fine dining like duck and quail and even boar.

Loki finally caught up and nudged Thor out of the way to pull out my chair. Thor chuckled under his breath and took the seat across from me as the ladies took the ones on either side of Thor. We all sat at the same time and they blessed the meal before everyone dug in.

“What brings you our way, your highness?” Rose asked, passing a basket of bread.

“We have come to see if you may be able to help us with questions we have about Loki’s heritage,” Thor said after accepting a piece and passing it to Loki.

“Oh?” Iris asked. “What sort of questions?”

Loki wiped his mouth with a napkin. “We are interested in the night that Odin found me. As the foremost historians of Asgard, we hoped that you may have information that could shed light on who my birth mother may be.”

Both sisters exchanged a glance. Iris spoke up first. “That is quite a task. Could you be more specific?”

“Well,” Loki said, folding his hands. “We know that he found me in the temple on Jotunheim, abandoned, after the final conflict where Odin took the Casket. I am afraid I do not know much about child-rearing on Jotunheim, so we wanted to know if there may have been a reason that I was left behind or it was merely that my birth mother was slain during the battle.”

They paused in thought. “It is possible she was among those that were killed during the battle,” Rose said. “Those who mind the temple are usually maidens. They are not trained for combat and if the warriors had already fallen, she may have died then.”

She looked at Loki more closely for a moment. “However, there is something that we must speak of as well. I warn you. It is quite disturbing. Are you certain you wish to know about Laufey?”

Loki nodded. “Go on.”

I slid my hand over his and held it. He didn’t stop me. Rose took a deep breath. “Laufey was the most powerful Jotun during his lifetime, unparalleled in ambition and cruelty. His men feared him, but they did not respect him, for Laufey held a disagreeable opinion about the women of his race. He considered himself so superior to the rest of them that he felt that none of his wives were of a standard of beauty to his liking.”

She cleared her throat, her voice hushed with disdain. “So Laufey would often kidnap women of other races and turn them into slaves to bear his children.”

All three of us stiffened in horror. Thor stared at her in shock. “You are certain?”

Iris nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. Laufey had a taste for Asgardian women in particular. One of the major conflicts between Asgard and Jotunheim were the string of kidnapped women that seemed to disappear around the times when Asgard fought Jotunheim.”

“God,” I whispered, shaking my head. “Were they ever able to rescue these women?”

“No. Laufey’s palace was far too fortified, and that is usually where they were kept. From what we understand, he sought an heir, but because our races differ so greatly, the children were stillborn and the wives died in labor. Our sources say that the night of the births, he would take them to the temple to pray for the child’s safe delivery.”

Loki’s fingers tightened around my hand. “So you are saying it is possible that my birth mother was Asgardian and she died giving birth to me?”

“Yes, your majesty,” Rose said solemnly. “However, it is difficult to say one way or another without an account from someone in Laufey’s inner circle.”

“Is there some sort of record of the women who went missing around that time?” Thor asked.

“We could look into it,” Iris said. “We could check the archives of what we were able to recover before Asgard was destroyed. Their names would have been immortalized in the public records. Then you could ask if anyone knew them and had a portrait or some keepsake of theirs.”

“Even if we were successful,” Loki said. “We would still be unable to identify her from that list ourselves.”

“Correct. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure if your birth mother was Asgardian is to ask a member of Laufey’s court. They would have known who was brought to the temple that night that gave birth to you, if that is where you came from. We can still consider the possibility that you were born of one of Laufey’s Jotun wives, but we were not aware that he had one around this time during the war.”

“Very well. Then we will go there and demand answers.”

“Careful,” Rose said sharply. “You must keep in mind that Jotunheim has agreed to a truce since your brother stopped the destruction of their planet, but any unwelcome presence may set off another war.”

Loki let out a low laugh that made the hairs on my neck stand up. “If what you say is true, Laufey kidnapped my mother and forced her to bear his child. Were it up to me, then another war would be a fitting act of retribution against his followers.”

“Loki, Laufey is dead,” the old woman said, narrowing her eyes at him. “Dead and gone. By your hand, if you recall. Attacking Jotunheim in her memory will serve no purpose, for you cannot punish a dead man.”

“He was no man,” Loki spat. “He was a beast. You said so yourself. How many women suffered at his hands and never saw mercy or kindness again before the end? How many Jotuns stood by and watched while he conducted his filthy business?”

“Loki,” I said quietly. “Listen to yourself. Do you know how you sound?”

He aimed his furious gaze at me. “How do I sound, wife?”

I didn’t back down from the heat in his eyes. “You sound how you did the night you tried to destroy Jotunheim. I know you’re angry. You have every right to be. Don’t let this knowledge fester into rage and revenge. You’re better than that.”

Loki pushed his chair out from the table and stood, laughing under his breath. “Am I? That is news to me, I’m afraid.”

He stalked away. I heard the front door slam shut behind him. Shit.

Thor sighed. “We had better go after him. We would like you to please pursue the information. Thank you so much for your hospitality and your knowledge.”

“Of course.”

I bowed my head to them as I stood. “Yes, thank you. I am in your debt.”

“Think nothing of it, princess,” Rose said as she came to my side and patted my arm. “Loki has a rough road ahead. He will need you to be strong. We wish you the best of luck.”

“Thank you, Rose. Thank you, Iris. I’ll try my best.”

Thor and I left. We were just in time to see a glimpse of Loki trudging up the hill that overlooked the forest. He stood there in the shadows, half cast in moonlight, a lone figure. My poor darling.

“He will be hostile,” Thor murmured to me. “He may say hurtful things.”

“I know.”

Thor took my hand and squeezed gently. “He will not mean it, even if he says it.”

“I know.”

We reached his side. I stood to his right, Thor to his left. We looked out over the land together, listening to the crickets and frogs, watching the leaves and trees rustle in the wind. It was lovely out here, darkness and all.

“Just when I thought I couldn’t hate them anymore than I already did,” Loki said after a while, tranquil fury in his gravely voice, his hands still clenched into fists. “Even dead, Laufey still causes me grief. Were there a way, I’d follow him to the afterlife and turn him inside out.”

“He was a bastard,” Thor said quietly. “Unmatched in cruelty. But it does not mean that is what you are, nor what you have to be, Loki.”

“Oh, I do _not_ need to hear your tongue this night, Odinson,” Loki snarled, glaring. “Not only were you handed the throne on a silver platter, but parents who genuinely loved you and each other. And what of me? A mongrel for a father and a victim for a mother. What do you know of suffering?”

“I do not pretend to know suffering, Loki,” Thor said as he faced him. “I only extend my sympathies to you.”

“You assume that I want them at all, your _majesty_.”

Thor exhaled through his nose and appeared to count to ten. “Very well. I will do or not do whatever it is that you want, Loki.”

“Wonderful. You may kindly piss off back to your wife and your throne and your child and leave me be before I personally introduce you to suffering.”

Thor stared at him for a long moment. “I am sorry for what you have been through, Loki. Truly sorry. I cannot imagine how it must feel.”

He stepped closer. “And you are my brother. I do not care about blood. I have never cared about blood. You are who you choose to be. I choose to be your brother no matter what you say or do, no matter where you came from, no matter where you go. Nothing will change that.”

Thor swallowed hard. “I love you, Loki. Never forget that.”

He turned and headed back down the hill. I’d seen tears in his lone blue eye before he’d gone and my insides felt shredded at the sight. Thor’s love for his brother was as vast and endless as the sea. I only hoped Loki understood that.

Loki and I stood there for a while longer, silent. My throat was too tight to speak, but eventually, I got a handle on it. “I’m so sorry, Loki.”

“Everyone is sorry,” he muttered darkly. “It makes no difference.”

“This is my fault,” I whispered. “I wanted to help and all I’ve done is make you more miserable.”

“I am a miserable person in general, darling,” he said wryly. “You did nothing that life had not already done to me.”

That tore it. I stomped around in front of him. “Loki, you have every single right to be furious, but don’t you dare turn back into the man you used to be.”

“What right have you to tell me who to be, woman?” he spat.

“I’m your wife!” I shouted. “I married a good man. Someone strong and compassionate and resilient. I will die before I let you be taken again by revenge and anguish. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because you are mine to protect. I will protect you from everything, including yourself. There is nothing I can say that will make this revelation hurt any less. Nothing at all, even if I had a Silvertongue like you do. But there is something that I can do, and that is stop you from spiraling into the darkness again like you did when you found out Odin lied to you.”

I touched his cheek. “Loki, you have been through hell. Over and over again. It’s not fair and it’s not right and you have never deserved it, but I don’t give a shit. You are the strongest person I have ever met. You will not let this beat you. You will not give in to that anger inside you. Because no matter what, you are still the son of Frigga. Her memory rests with you and I know that you will never let her down no matter what because she is your guiding light. She is the reason you have so much love inside of you. That love grew to define you, to motivate you to do things you never considered yourself worthy enough to do. And if her memory is not enough, then let me be enough instead. I am here, Loki. I will do anything to help you carry the weight of this pain. I will not lose you. I will not give up on you because you are worth it.”

Loki stared down at me, his blue-green eyes swirling with such pain and fury, tears on his lashes. “He took everything from me. Do you understand that? _Everything._ ”

“Yes, I do. And I know what it’s like to have no roots to plant yourself. But you’re not a monster and you’re not alone. If you want to stop right now and bury the past, then I’ll grab a goddamn shovel and we’ll do it together. If you want to find out the truth, then I’m with you until the end. Wherever that leads.”

Tears fell from his eyes. He gripped my shoulders and pulled me into him, resting his forehead to mine. “I do not deserve you.”

“Yes, you do.”

Loki kissed me gently. “I want to go home. With you.”

“Okay.” I took his hand and squeezed it. “But apologize to your brother first.”

He laughed a little, wiping his eyes. “Do not press your luck, little wife.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do it or no sex for a week, husband.”

He scowled and then rolled his eyes as we started down the hill. “Very well, but only because I intend to bed you the second we return home.”

I snorted. “Typical.”

Thor was leaning against the limousine, his expression thoughtful. It turned guarded when he saw us return.

“I should not have taken my anger out on you,” Loki said. “I was wrong. I am sorry.”

Thor shook his head. “I took no offense to your words, brother.”

“You have been good to me,” Loki said quietly. “Better than I deserve. I have chosen not to see it, for it only made me feel less worthy knowing how you loved me in spite of how I have treated you. Perhaps we may never see eye to eye—”

I kicked his ankle and he chuckled before continuing. “—but I know that you only want what is best for me. I appreciate your help and support in this endeavor.”

He cleared his throat, averting his eyes and lowering his voice. “And I love you as well, you buffoon.”

Thor wrapped an arm around him and squeezed. “Thank you, Loki.”

They both did that manly cough-and-wipe-your-eyes-and-pretend-no-one-noticed thing that men do before Thor opened the door to the limo. We climbed inside and the driver took us back to the Avengers compound.

To his credit, Loki didn’t ravish me the second we returned to his suite. We undressed from our Asgardian clothing like a civilized married couple. After he hung up our clothes, Loki wrapped me up in his arms.

“My sweet girl,” he whispered, kissing my forehead, each of my cheeks, then my lips. “How was I ever able to win your affections?”

“Sex,” I said bluntly, which made him laugh.

“You are not wrong,” he drawled, his sea-green eyes glittering. “Even so, I could never have imagined back then how much you would mean to me. How I could find a measure of redemption in loving you. I was a lost soul.”

He brushed my hair behind my ear. “But I am not any longer.”

Loki kissed me and then scooped me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. I poured every ounce of myself into the kiss as he carried me to the bed and lay me on it. He stretched out his tall frame above me and let his hands roam over me all over, lightly caressing. He unsnapped the bra and nipped at my collarbone before sliding down to slip my left breast inside his mouth. I rolled my hips up against his pelvis and mewled, dying for friction, wanting, needing more of him. I dragged my nails over his shoulder blades and felt the power in them, molding my naked skin to his as much as possible. He kissed his way down my stomach and peeled off my panties, eagerly pushing my thighs apart. He didn’t waste a moment inserting two fingers into my waiting heat, sliding his tongue in as well, and I screamed as a scalding wave of pleasure washed over me. His mouth relocated slightly higher, bestowing intense concentration over my clit, his fingers finding a rhythm that had me writhing under him.

“Come,” he urged around his ragged breaths. “Come, my sweet girl.”

He circled my clit with the tip of his tongue, driving a whimpering cry out of me. “God, Loki, please!”

His soft lips covered the spot and sucked, his tongue flicking over it again and again until I arched up from the bed and my vision bled to white as I shot into my orgasm at lightspeed. His fingers curled inside me and raked against my other spot, sending me into convulsions around him. I felt another splash of ecstasy as his magic swirled around me, gently tugging at my breasts as I rode the climax. God help me, he was going all out tonight, it seemed.

I slumped back on the sheets after he’d pulled every drop of pleasure out of me, sweaty and shaking and utterly keyed up. Loki licked his fingers and mouth clean and then moved in for the kill, planting his hands above me on the pillow to cage me between them. He groaned low in his throat as his cock pierced me at last, sliding deep and filling me to the brim. He ground his pelvis into my lower tummy and then withdrew slowly, savoring every second of that first rush of entry. He kissed me as he delved in again, his velvet voice reverberating in my ears as I clutched him to me.

“My beautiful wife,” Loki whispered, circling his hips enough to make me moan. “My good, sweet girl. Heaven is nowhere but here in my bed with you.”

“You’re so good to me, Loki,” I whispered back as I worked my hips against him, drawing groan after groan from his lips. “So good. I always want you, no matter where or when. I love you.”

He shuddered and his hips crashed into mine as he sped up, excited. “Say it again, darling.”

“I love you, Loki. So much.”

He growled into my mouth and slid one hand down my side until he cupped a handful of my ass, pulling me up flush to him and wrapping one leg around his waist. He fucked me harder, faster, his long, slender body flowing perfectly with my own movements. “Mm, fuck, you’re so sweet, darling. Let me have you. Let me have every inch of you. Come for me. Come on my cock. I am at your mercy. All that I have laid bare unto you, my goddess.”

I cried out, for his words and his touch and his sex were far too much for me, a mere mortal. He sent me spinning off into my climax only seconds later, claiming his as well, our bodies as intertwined as our hearts. He stilled above me and I stilled beneath him, our hearts pounding as one where our chests met.

Eventually, I reached up and brushed his tangled curls away from his face. His eyes opened to look at me and I smiled. “You’re gonna be fine, Loki. I promise. You’ll get through this.”

“I know,” he whispered reverently. “For I have the love of a good woman. And I will not let her down.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki go to Jotunheim for answers.

_Be careful making wishes in the dark_

_Can't be sure when they've hit their mark_

_And besides, in the meantime I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart_

_I'm in the details with the devil_   
_So now the world can never get me on my level_   
_I just got to get you out of the cage_   
_I'm a young lovers rage_   
_Gonna need a spark to ignite_   
_My songs know what you did in the dark_

_So light em up up up, light em up up up,_   
_light em up up up, I'm on fire_   
_So light em up up up, light em up up up,_   
_light em up up up, I'm on fire_

_Ooh oh oh oh (In the dark, in the dark)_   
_Ooh oh oh oh (In the dark, in the dark)_

_-"My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark" by Fallout Boy_

“I shall only ask you this once,” my husband said to me, his thumb hovering over the release hatch to the Quinjet. “Are you certain that you wish to go with me, wife?”

I met Loki’s worried gaze and smiled. “Quit dawdling, husband. You’ll make us late for supper.”

He let out a soft snort and opened the bay doors. Immediately, an unfathomable cold swept inside along with a swirling mass of snowflakes and sleet. My ice magic protected me against the bulk of the freezing cold temperatures of Jotunheim, but I was still partially human. I was vulnerable to the cold if I became injured, like when that bilgesnipe had attacked and knocked me into the nearly frozen river all those years ago. When I was healthy and conscious, though, I didn’t much feel the cold. That being said, I wore an outfit that the Asgardians had picked out for me specifically to combat the frozen tundra of Jotunheim: an all-black ensemble consisting of a tunic and pants and supple boots with light silver embroidered throughout. I had my furs on as well just for extra insulation.

I took a deep breath and glanced back at my brother-in-law. “You gonna be okay, big guy?”

“Aye,” Thor agreed. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll come running.”

He paused and gave me a small smile. “Well, flying, that is.”

I rolled my eyes. “Braggart.”

He grinned. “Good luck to you both.”

“Yes, we shall need it,” Loki groused as he stooped and picked up the enormous, ornate trunk full of gold from the Asgardian vaults. We walked down the ramp and onto the icy stone roughly a mile from the entrance to the Jotunheim colony. The wind whipped my hair about, nearly undoing the neat braid that I’d put it into, stray strands trying to cling to my lashes much like the snow billowing around us.

Thor had told me a bit about Jotunheim over the years. It seemed that they had rebuilt much of the main city now that they were no longer at war with Asgard. The outer gates were now intact, which meant that he and I had to stop to address the guards on the parapet. They were armed with spears and swords, but they did not attack once we stopped outside of them. One disappeared down a stairwell and then the huge gates groaned open to let him pass.

I’d never met a Frost Giant before today. I’d seen enormous creatures, but it still felt rather intimidating being approached by an alien twice my height and easily three times my weight. He strode towards us with the confidence of a military man, coming to a stop a few feet away. The men on top of the wall all gripped their weapons readily.

“Asgardians are not welcome here,” the guard sneered. “Return from whence you came or taste cold steel.”

“I understand that we have a peace treaty with Jotunheim that is still intact,” Loki said patiently. “I come in peace. We wish only to speak with whomever has been left in command. We have brought tribute to show our sincerity in this manner.”

The guard let out an ugly chuckle. “You speak of sincerity, prince? You, who slew our king?”

Loki’s jaw clenched. “I do not deny my former shame. I was a violent, angry, cruel man when I killed Laufey. I seek only a conversation, nothing more, and I will again leave you and your people in peace once I have acquired the information I seek.”

The guard’s red eyes locked onto the trunk. “You think a bit of paltry gold will be enough to pay for your crimes, little prince?”

Loki smirked. “No.”

He set the trunk down and unlocked it, showing its contents. It was nearly overflowing with gold. “I think a lot of gold will do the trick.”

The guard eyed him for a long moment, then the gold, and then snorted. “I will consult with the King and give you your answer, Asgardian.”

He returned inside and the gates shut again. We waited. Sometime later, the gates reopened enough to allow the two of us inside. The guard crossed his arms as he stood to the side to let us pass.

“Be brief, little prince. Seethe has little patience for outsiders.”

We entered the city and walked along its frozen streets to the palace. The second set of guards allowed us entry and we walked up a long set of stairs to an inner chamber that resembled a courtroom, like the one Thor had described to me on Asgard. The walls were high and made of the same dark greyish-blue stone. Inside, we found ten guards and then an especially huge Jotun seated on the throne. He had to be twice as tall and wide as the average Frost Giant.

“Prince Loki,” the acting king of Jotunheim said with a sneer. “For what reason do you slither to my doorstep?”

Loki’s eyes narrowed. “I do not believe we have met.”

“I suppose not,” the Jotun chuckled. “I am Seethe. I was Laufey’s second in command before his death, and therefore, it is I who now rules the kingdom.”

“I see.”

Those big red eyes landed on me. “Have you brought me a tribute, Asgardian?”

Loki bristled then. “This is my wife. We are partners in all things. She is no one’s tribute.”

“Special,” Seethe said, rubbing his chin as he stared at me. “Not small and weak like the other Midgardians. How is it that you won her?”

“He didn’t,” I said tartly. “I won him. We seek information and we have brought gold to trade for it. Will you hear us out, Seethe?”

A craggy grin spread across his leathery lips. “Gold, you say?”

Loki shoved the trunk forward with a foot. Seethe gestured and a guard came forward, opening it to expose its contents. Greed shone in Seethe’s demonic eyes.

“Quite the tribute, prince,” he said coolly. “The information you seek must be of the utmost importance for you to risk your life and that of your wife to come see me.”

“Will you hear us?” Loki asked.

Seethe rubbed his furrowed chin a bit more and then nodded. “Very well. What is that you want?”

“On the night of the final conflict between Odin and Jotunheim, Odin took a newborn from the temple. We would like to know the identity of the mother of that infant.”

“What business is that of yours?”

Loki smirked. “I am not obligated to share that with you. Do you or someone of your court know who the birth mother was?”

“You are very clever, but your Silvertongue has dulled with time,” Seethe said. “There is no use trying to hide the truth. Those of Laufey’s inner court knew of the runt that was born the night that Odin struck a deal with him. You are Laufey’s son.”

Loki’s posture shifted into a subtle, but recognizable defensive position. I mirrored him. “I seek no claim to the throne. Only answers. Let us have them and we will leave.”

“Why not?” Seethe asked. “Wouldn’t you prefer being a king to a prince? Or are you just as prejudiced and disgusted by your own race as your pathetic father?”

Cold fury filled Loki’s features. “Know this, Seethe. I will not risk conflict with Jotunheim under Thor’s orders, but I will not endure your insults.”

“You seek the truth, do you?” Seethe asked. “The truth is that you were weak. Laufey’s obsession with the ‘fair’ brides of Asgard caused him to produce an heir that would not even survive its first night on Jotunheim if it had not been for Odin. You were a weak, mewling runt then and you still are. Had you any pride, you would draw your weapon, end my life, and retake the throne of Jotunheim, but you won’t.”

He sat forward in his seat, narrowing those demonic eyes. “You were cast out. Left to die in the temple for your disgraceful existence. Laufey thought it fitting considering you killed his favorite Asgardian bride.”

Loki stiffened.

Oh, God.

“She died in childbirth?” Loki asked hoarsely.

“Yes,” Seethe said. “And that is why Laufey left you to die as well. His prize was torn from him and his pride was torn from him when he realized that you would be whelp instead of a warrior.”

Loki stepped forward. “Her name. Give it to me.”

Seethe smirked. “No.”

Loki gritted his teeth. “I have paid tribute to you.”

“Your tribute is not enough.”

“I will have her name!” Loki roared. “Even if I have to tear it from your bony skull, Jotun!”

The guards around us drew their weapons. In the blink of an eye, Loki’s daggers manifested in his hands.

 _“Loki,”_ I said sharply. He flinched as he heard my voice, as if he’d forgotten I was here. Maybe he had. Hearing all this trauma must have taken him to a dark place.

I addressed the king. “If this tribute is not enough to reveal his mother’s name, then what is enough?”

“Return the Casket to us.”

I shook my head. “The Casket was obliterated when Surtur destroyed Asgard. It is no more.”

Seethe scowled. “His brother’s hammer, Mjolnir, then.”

“Mjolnir was destroyed by the Goddess of Death, Hela.” I snorted a bit. “Get caught up on current events, your highness.”

Seethe laughed. It sounded like a blender full of rocks and sharp glass. “I like you, little wife. You have a sharp tongue.”

His gaze dropped towards my chest. “Tell me, princess. Is that necklace a gift from your husband?”

I touched the amethyst snowflake pendant absently. “Yes.”

“Is it of significance to you?”

I eyed him. “Yes.”

“Good. A sacrifice for a sacrifice. I will have it in exchange for his birth mother’s name.”

“No,” Loki growled. “You will not make demands of my wife.”

“Loki,” I said calmly. “It’s alright.”

“He does not care about the trinket,” he spat.

“I know,” I said as I unsnapped the necklace from my nape. The smugness in Seethe’s smile made me want to shove my rapier right through his forehead. He held out his huge hand with those thick fingers.

“Bring it to me, little wife.”

I forced my temper in check as I walked up the stairs to the throne. I stood an arms’ length away and offered the shimmering silver to him, keeping my expression blank. My insides felt as if they were rotting out of me. I loved this necklace. I wore it all the time. I knew Loki could make me another one, but it had been the first gift he ever gave me. It was a symbol of acknowledgment, of affection, of fondness. Which was why this giant toad wanted me to hand it over, just to rub it in.

I dropped the necklace into Seethe’s big, meaty hand. He glanced down at it on his palm.

Then he made a fist and crushed it.

“Kill them.”

The guards charged Loki.

They hadn’t counted on just how fast I could draw my rapier.

I lay the tip of the blade against Seethe’s thick neck. For all his size, he wasn’t agile. He’d only gripped the handle of the dagger at his side before I’d moved. The entire courtroom froze at the sight of me, a mere Midgardian, holding their king at swordpoint.

“If your men harm one hair on my husband’s head,” I murmured to Seethe. “I will remove your head from your shoulders and shove it up your frozen ass, your majesty.”

He glared at me. “You are not strong enough to behead me, Midgardian.”

I took my left hand off the butt of the rapier and formed a second rapier made entirely out of ice. His red eyes nearly bulged from his head. I scissored the two rapiers on either side of his neck. “How about now, fuckface?”

Seethe grimaced. “You would go to war with Jotunheim for him?”

“I’d go to war with the entire known universe for him,” I said calmly. “We do not want to start a conflict, but by the Yggdrasil, we will end it here and now. Give me the name.”

A long, frustrated breath—one filled with the scent of stale blood and old grime—escaped the King of Jotunheim. He worked his jaw for a second and then said, “Amelia. His mother’s name was Amelia.”

I leaned away from him. “Thank you for your cooperation, your highness.”

I shifted until I could see Loki in my peripheral. The Jotuns had surrounded him, but they were motionless as they observed me instead. He nodded towards the exit and I understood.

“Well, wench, what are you waiting for?” Seethe growled.

I sent him a brief perfunctory smile. “Backup.”

A second later, the ceiling of the courtroom exploded and Thor landed in the center, Stormbreaker clutched in one fist, landing one knee. He gave the Jotuns in the room a rakish grin as he dusted snow and ice off of his cape and cheerfully said, “Hello!”

Seethe’s blue skin prevented him from turning pale, but I got the very real sense all the blood had left his face from the “oh shit” expression now resting there.

“I see we have decided to go with diplomacy today,” Thor said as he casually strolled towards the steps of the throne.

“Hey, I tried to be nice,” I protested.

“Of course, milady,” Thor said. “I would never assume otherwise.”

Thor inclined his head to the motionless Jotun at the end of my blades. “Seethe.”

“Thor.”

“Our kingdoms’ peace treaty is still intact,” Thor said, twirling his ax. “However, it will not hold up if your soldiers attack my brother and sister-in-law. Allow us to leave peacefully or the treaty is over.”

Seethe looked like he’d just swallowed a mouthful of sewage. He watched the enormous blade of Thor’s ax swoop through the cold air in a lazy loop as the King of Asgard swung it with ease. He swallowed and then croaked out, “Let them go.”

The Jotuns lowered their weapons. I stepped away from him and walked down the steps to reach Thor’s side. Loki fell in step beside us and we marched out of the palace without another word.

Once we were safely outside of the outer gates, Thor heaved a sigh. “That went well.”

“What took you so bloody long?” Loki snarled at his brother. “He could have snapped her neck.”

I scowled. “Excuse me? I had him by the balls and you’re yelling at Thor for bailing us out?”

Loki exhaled through his nose. “He cut it too close. You could have been killed.”

“So could you, idiot,” I snapped as the Quinjet’s ramp opened. “That’s the risk we took coming here for answers.”

He grumbled something under his breath as he stomped towards the pilot’s seat and began the pre-flight check. Seconds later, we took off. I let him be. He’d been scared for me, which made him act irrational, and he was still reeling from the revelation. He’d need time to cool off and deal with his birth mother’s passing too.

Thor and I sat in the rear of the jet together. He bumped my shoulder with his own.

“I am sorry about the necklace.”

I shrugged. “S’okay. Can always get another one.”

He held my hand. “You are one brave lass, you know.”

“Brave or crazy?”

His eye twinkled. “Yes.”

I chuckled. “Thanks for coming after us, big guy.”

He kissed my forehead. “What else is family for?”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frosty and Loki comes to terms with what they've learned about Amelia, Loki's birth mother.

_And I'm sure the view from heaven_

_Beats the hell out of mine here_

_And if we all believe in heaven_

_Maybe we'll make it through one more year_

_Down here_

_You won't be coming back_

_And I didn't get to say goodbye_

_I really wish I got to say goodbye_

_-"View from Heaven" by Yellowcard_

“Amelia,” Rose murmured thoughtfully. The Asgardian elder stood before a waist-high platform with a transparent top that had lights glowing from within that projected holograms. There were two kinds of records in Asgardian culture: books, scrolls, and parchments that had been recovered from the library or private reading collections of Asgardians, and then the Archives. The Archives had been a project Frigga began not long after she became Queen to compile the massive knowledge of their culture into something that would endure for all time, for paper eventually would decompose or could be lost or stolen. The Archive itself was actually just a little golden cube that was inserted inside the platform, which allowed access to the information. Everyone had permission to seek the knowledge, but only certain people were allowed to use it in case someone got greedy and thought about stealing it. “Yes, here we are.”

Rose selected the name among the list of missing Asgardians. “Reported missing roughly a year before the treaty was drawn up between Asgard and Jotunheim.”

After she chose Amelia’s name, a beautiful woman with long, sable hair, high cheekbones, and blue eyes appeared. The Archive had found a painting of her, smiling as she glanced over one shoulder in what seemed to be a portrait. There was a fierce playful nature to her features. She wore a navy gown and held a bouquet of white flowers to her chest.

Beside me, Loki said nothing. He just stared at her. I couldn’t read his expression. I slipped my fingers between his and held his hand.

“Amelia,” Loki whispered. “Who was she? Does it say?”

“A bit,” Rose said. “She was a scribe in the palace. They believe she was taken while visiting Alfheim and the Frost Giants attacked a village, taking supplies and the women with them. Odin mounted a rescue, but their numbers were too great and the palace was too fortified at the time.”

Loki swallowed. “Was she buried on Jotunheim?”

Rose took a deep breath. “I believe that if Odin’s soldiers discovered her among the bodies in the temple, she would have been brought back to Asgard, dressed, and given a proper burial on Asgard.”

He shook his head slightly. “All this time, I could have sought her out. She may have had a grave I walked past a thousand times without knowing it. Now she is but stardust.”

I squeezed his hand and spoke up. “Did she have any next of kin?”

Rose shook her head. “The Archive does not say. Many Asgardians have oral histories of their families and lineage. It isn’t always written down.”

“What about friends?”

Rose rubbed her chin. “That will take some time, but I do believe someone might have known her. I’ll let you know what I find.”

“Thank you, Rose.”

Loki inclined his head to her and we left the Asgardian library. He said nothing on the drive back to the Avengers compound. I just kept holding his hand. It was all I could do for now.

We returned to his apartment. Loki hadn’t eaten, but I didn’t push him. Asgardians didn’t have to eat as often as us. I didn’t feel up for food either, so instead, I filled our giant garden tub with his bougie bath salts and some nice fragrances and near-scalding water, just the way he liked it.

Loki sat on the bed, staring at his hands, silent and pale. I shut off the water once the tub was full and then padded over to my husband. I threaded my fingers into his dark hair. At my touch, he leaned his forehead against my tummy, right over my scars, and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“She was young,” he said hoarsely. “So young.”

I closed my eyes and ran my fingers through his hair over and over. “Yeah.”

A sad laugh left him. “What a monster I am to have killed both of my mothers.”

“Jesus _Christ_ , Loki,” I whispered, hot tears gathering in my eyes. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t choose to be born.”

“Fitting, as it was not her choice to have me.”

I cupped his chin and lifted his face. Sorrow had nested in his eyes, trying to burrow its way down into his soul. “Loki, you have to let go. Let go of the things that are beyond your control. You know your past. Now you have to look to the future.”

“The future,” he murmured. “I am less sure of it than ever before.”

“Which part?”

“She died in childbirth. What if the same thing happens to you? What if I kill the last good thing in my life?”

“Loki, you are Laufey’s son in blood only,” I told him fiercely. “You are not a monster, nor will you be the father of one. Our child will be beautiful and kind, just like their father. You are only half Jotun by birth, and Odin’s magic changed you into an Asgardian.”

His expression hardened. “You do not know that for sure.”

“Fine. Forget the magic mumbo jumbo. We’ll prove that you are Asgardian. Take a DNA test and we’ll compare it to Thor’s and you will see for yourself.”

Loki blinked at me in surprise. “What?” I asked.

“I…had not considered that option,” he admitted. “It is very practical.”

“Damn right it is.” I dropped a kiss to his forehead. “Come on. Bath time.”

We undressed and climbed into the tub together. I turned on some soft music from my phone. Delta Spirit spilled through the room, giving it a calming feel.

_“So cold, I know you can’t believe it_

_Sometimes, you gotta face the feeling_

_When you don’t care if you get up again_

_There’s a thousand things I will not understand_

_How you’re dealing with the hell I put you through_

_If I had my way, I would be right there next to you_

_Certain things in life you cannot change_

_But certain things, I hope you know I can…”_

“I am sorry about the necklace,” Loki murmured in my ear. “It was special to you, to us.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not. You took on my burden. It was never my intention for you to bear it.”

“Too bad, danger noodle,” I said with a faint smile. “Shouldn’t have married me, then. Two became one. When you hurt, I hurt. When you’re happy, I’m happy. Therefore, your burdens are my burdens.”

“I do not understand.”

“What?”

“How your love endures in spite of knowing where I came from.”

I scooted in his lap until I could see him. “Loki, would you love me any less if we found out my father murdered my mother?”

His sea-green eyes widened. “No, of course not.”

“Then why would you think I would love you any less?”

Frustration flooded his features. “Because violence follows me wherever I go, casting a long shadow over my life, even before I was bloody born. Do you not fear for yourself, for our future child, for your family? How long before my past catches up to me?”

“It did,” I said frankly. “And you are still here. So am I. So is my family.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t get to answer that question. No one does. We’re here until we’re not. I won’t live in fear. I know who and what you are, Loki. I made peace with it when I married you. How long before you make peace with it?”

He touched the side of my face. “Your life is so precious. You have no idea, my darling. Yet you would throw it away in a second for me. You would behead a king for me. You, a mortal woman.”

“And you would do the same for me. What’s your point?”

Loki sighed. “I want you to be safe.”

“The only way I stay safe is by keeping your pale ass alive, husband. I thought you knew that.”

He let out a weak chuckle. “Forgive me my forgetfulness, wife.”

I kissed him. We sat there for a bit, listening to the music. Eventually, he spoke again. “I wish I had been there to stop Laufey from taking her. Who knows what her life may have been like?”

“I know. But maybe that is why you’re here. She has survived through you. Someone remembers her. She’ll be honored in your memory, same as Frigga.”

“Do you think they knew each other?”

“Well, she was a scribe in the palace. Perhaps they did.”

He shut his eyes and leaned his head back along the rim of the tub. “Do you think they got along?”

“Depends. Did you get that smartass mouth from Frigga or from Amelia?”

He grinned. “Bold of you to assume it was either or and not both.”

I chuckled. “True. Double trouble.”

Loki petted the spot between my shoulder blades. “I wish you could have met them.”

I lay my head under his chin. “Me too.”

* * *

“This is so _weird.”_

Loki glanced at me. “What? I thought you liked brownstones.”

“No, the fact that I’m frickin’ house hunting with a supervillain.”

Loki grinned. “Ah. What is the saying on Midgard? Life is stranger than fiction?”

“God, is it ever. Can’t believe I have a Norse god for a baby daddy.”

Loki’s face contorted as he tried not to laugh. “You are not with child yet, woman. I am not a ‘baby daddy.’”

I grinned right back. “I know. I just wanted to make you say it out loud.”

He rolled his eyes and pinched me lightly as the leasing agent finished entering the code to let us inside. Her name was Cindy. She was a sweet older lady Tony had recommended, one who didn’t bat an eyelash at being around aliens or enhanced individuals. She’d helped Vision and Wanda find their place already, so we knew she was good at her job.

“Here we are,” she said as she stepped to the side so we could enter the foyer. “Newly renovated. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms. Granite countertops, all hardwood floors. The works.”

I whistled as I peeked at the spacious dining room. Loki trailed after me room to room, checking the specs. Truthfully, we were considering all our options. By now, Loki had been here long enough that the heat had worn off and the world accepted him for the most part. He could travel city to city mostly unbothered, so living on the Upper West Side wasn’t out of the question. The commute to the compound wasn’t the worst and I’d lived in Manhattan before, so I was used to it. It would also be handy considering how much shit went down in New York City crime-wise.

The townhouse had an enormous master bedroom, which I liked. Between the two of us, Loki and I had acquired quite a lot of stuff and would need plenty of space for it. I’d want to decorate, both with my things and with the gorgeous Asgardian art and knick-knacks Loki had. We were also on the top floor to reduce the noisy neighbor factor.

“What do you think?” I asked as I turned to Loki.

“The ease of access and sense of community is beneficial,” he admitted as he stared around the bare blue walls. “However, I am unsure about the open access. It would not take too long for the neighborhood to realize we lived here. You would not want admirers, perverts, or criminals loitering nearby.”

I nodded. “True. It’s something to consider. Maybe you want a place with a doorman?”

“Perhaps. I would also prefer if one of Stark’s security A.I. had access to the building.”

“Tch. Like it’s not Big Brother-y enough already. I’m sure Iron Dad would make it available whether we asked him to or not.”

“Mm. It would also be nice for the doorman to warn us when my brother is on the way for one of his spontaneous visits. He will miss you terribly once we have moved out and I get the feel he will want to drop by weekly to check on you.”

I bit my lip as I thought about it. “It’ll be strange at first.”

“What?”

“Being alone with you. I mean, we’re alone in our apartment at the compound, but there’s usually always someone nearby. Once we move, it’ll be just you and me, and eventually, a little critter underfoot. I’ve never done that before.”

Loki wrapped his arms around me. “Do you fear it?”

“No. It’s just new. I lived alone before Tony recruited me. It’s funny to think of just the two of us rattling around in here.”

“It will be new territory for me as well,” Loki admitted. “But we’ll navigate it together.”

“You’ll have me all to yourself, just like you’ve always wanted.”

Loki smiled and kissed my temple. “Indeed. There is no escape now, my pet.”

I chuckled. “As if there ever was. I think this was inevitable in a way.”

“Love always is,” he whispered.

“So,” Cindy said brightly as she walked into the bedroom. “What do we think?”

“The space is perfect,” I said. “We’d like to see something else like this but maybe with a little more security?”

“Oh, I should have just the thing, in fact. We’ve got to make sure you’ll all be safe and cozy.” Her smile turned a bit sly. “Since we’re anticipating a little one sometime soon.”

I blushed and tried not to laugh nervously. “Er, sort of. We haven’t quite planned that far ahead.”

“I’m only teasing,” she said warmly. “You two seem perfectly suited for each other. It will help you become great parents. You already know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. That alone gives you a huge advantage knowing how to work together as parents.”

My throat got a little tight. “Oh. Thank you, Cindy.”

She touched my arm. “My pleasure. Let’s get along to the next place, shall we?”

Cindy headed for the door. Loki sent me a teasing glance and took my hand. “You are so very cute when you are flustered, my darling.”

I just rolled my eyes. “Let’s go, baby daddy.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki returns from speaking with an Asgardian elder about Amelia.

_Lips, ripe as the berries in June_

_Red the rose, red the rose_

_Skin, pale as the light of the moon_

_Gently as she goes_

_Eyes, blue as the sea and the sky_

_Water flows, water flows_

_Heart, burning like fire in the night_

_Gently as she goes..._

_"Gently as She Goes" from the Beowulf OST_

__

_“I just took a DNA test, turns out, I’m a-hundred percent That Bitch, even when I’m crying crazy!”_

It turns out making dinner with my brother-in-law while singing ridiculous pop songs was a good way to treat my anxiety.

Thor and I stood at the stove in my apartment, shoulder to shoulder, both of us caterwauling rap lyrics while we cooked, my phone blaring the music from where it sat on the island counter next to the huge bowl of salad. I was on spaghetti sauce duty tonight while Thor was working on the rotini noodles. We were no stranger to family dinner nights between the Brodinsons as well as the Avengers themselves. The team rotated whose turn it was to cook each month, but this was just between the brothers and me tonight. My anxiety was at high levels, so Thor had decided to keep me company. Loki would be returning from meeting with an Asgardian elder named Samson, who had known Amelia when she was still alive.

“Sauce is done,” I chirped, grabbing a spoon and dipping it in. I offered it to Thor. “Taste.”

He stooped and tasted the sauce, concentrating. “Mm. I think a bit more garlic powder?”

“Roger that.” I grabbed it from the cabinet and added it to the sauce. Thor selected a rotini and blew on it until it cooled, offering it to me.

“Al dente or no?”

I ate it. “Hmm…one more minute should make it al dente.”

“Aye, thank you, milady.” He grabbed the strainer and popped it in the sink. The timer went off, indicating the garlic bread was finished. I stepped to one side and he retrieved it with an oven mitt, placing it on the island counter beside the salad. I brought down the plates and silverware while he strained the pasta. He rejoined me at the island counter and bumped me lightly with his hip to get my attention.

“Are you alright?” he asked gently.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just tense.”

“It’s alright. You know, I’ve always wondered if you had some sort of empathic abilities in addition to that of your ice magic. You feel for others rather deeply, always investing in them.”

I snorted. “Yeah, if that’s true, how do I get rid of it? I hate feeling so anxious, worrying that he’ll be okay with whatever he finds.”

“It isn’t a bad thing. Lack of empathy has caused strife countless times in history. Even if it’s taxing, it keeps one from becoming callous or apathetic.” He rubbed my back. “Don’t worry. We’ll handle it together, as we always do.”

“Ugh, stop being nice to me,” I whined, shooting him a sheepish look. “I perfected my eye liner for once and I don’t want my makeup to run.”

He laughed and kissed my cheek. “As you wish, my princess.”

We were pouring the wine and chatting about house hunting when the door to the apartment opened and Loki strolled in with a white box under his arm, no doubt our dessert. Thor could eat an entire cake—or hell, several, if you let him—in one sitting, so it was mostly for him.

Loki set the cake on the other counter and then gave me my greeting kiss. “Wife.”

“Husband. Good timing; everything’s ready.”

“Very well.” He nicked a slice of garlic bread and crunched into it before retreating to the bedroom to wash up. He returned a moment later, then we all fixed our plates and ate at the dining room table. I tried not to fidget and rush into it, rather letting us get through half of the meal before speaking up.

“How did it go with Samson?”

Loki sipped his red wine. “He is a funny little fellow. He worked the palace stables before he retired. Amelia loved to ride, so they met when he helped her pick a horse for her regular rides over the countryside. She would go once every week, around sunset. Sometimes they would talk when she brought the horse back to the stable.”

He folded his hands. “He told me Amelia would volunteer to read to the Asgardian children when she was not working in the library. She was very brazen and outspoken, which often got her into trouble with the elders. Often, she traveled to the other realms to trade with them and acquire new books, even going as far out as Knowhere to visit the Collector.”

“Intriguing,” Thor said. “Did she speak other languages?”

“Eleven,” Loki said, a small smile on his lips. “Including Groot.”

Thor grinned. “A woman after my own heart.”

“Yes, she was quite the intellectual. She taught language classes in addition to her palace duties. She was very active in the education community back then, advocating for advanced materials for the children wherever possible, always wanting them to know as much as possible and from many different sources. He said she used to fence a bit for fun. She was not much for courtship, from what he could tell, though men pursued her relentlessly.”

“Does he think she knew Frigga?” I asked.

Loki nodded. “He said it’s quite likely, as Frigga attended most of the education committee meetings, as it was a passion of hers. She was not a fan of royalty, per se, but they probably saw eye to eye on most issues.”

“That’s wonderful,” I said. “Was he aware of any other family?”

“Unfortunately, no, it did not come up in their conversations, but he said he would look into it for me along with Rose and Iris.” A faint, sad smile touched his lips. “He said I have her laugh.”

I smiled and reached over, holding his hand. He squeezed my fingers, his voice quietly reverent. “It was nice to hear about her. It sounds as if she were a good woman. Very driven. Intelligent, but with a wild streak.”

“Sounds awful familiar,” Thor said, his eye sparkling with good humor. “I am so glad for you, Loki.”

“Thank you, brother. It has not been easy, but…” He exhaled. “But I am grateful that I learned the truth. As a wise woman said, now that I know my past, I can focus on my future.”

I batted my lashes at him. “Gee, does this wise woman have a name? Is she also stunningly beautiful and clever?”

Loki rolled his eyes. “No, but she is smug and self-centered.”

I stuck out my tongue. “Mean old noodle.”

“Keep calling me that and you shall be wearing a crown of noodles shortly,” he said, eyes narrowed, tilting his plate in my direction.

“Loki, be nice to your wife,” Thor chided. “Mostly because I am not helping you clean up the mess if you start a food fight.”

“Oh, please,” I said before taking a sip of my wine. “He wouldn’t dare.”

Loki’s “bitch please” face should have tipped me off. A second later, he scooped up a rotini and flung it directly into my cleavage.

“Loki!” I screeched as I wiggled off the chair and tried to grab it before it slipped down my shirt. Loki burst out laughing at my ridiculous dance to get the noodle out of my clothing. Oh, two could play that damn game.

“Frosty,” Thor warned, holding out a hand. “Think before you—”

I grabbed a fistful of chocolate cake and lobbed it right at my laughing husband’s face.

_Splat!_

Loki sat stock-still in his seat.

Silence descended for a moment.

Loki reached up and wiped the chocolate icing from his brow and sent me a hellish glare. “You are a _dead woman.”_

In less than five minutes, the three of us were wearing what remained of the spaghetti dinner.

Yes, we’re all idiots. What of it?

“Alright,” Thor giggled after he’d finished emptying the contents of the Greek vinaigrette down the back of Loki’s tunic and we were all trying to balance on the messy dining room floor. “Have you had enough, you heathens?”

“Y-Yes,” I wheezed in between laughter as I stared at my husband, who was half-covered in spaghetti sauce, decorated with romaine lettuce, and finally garnished with about a fourth of the chocolate cake. I hadn’t fared much better—he’d smeared enough sauce on me for a full meal at Olive Garden and I knew there were croutons in my hair. Thor had tried to intervene, but we’d just turned on him too, so he was mostly covered in ranch dressing and there were noodles stuck to his shirt. “Ceasefire?”

Loki’s mouth had been split in a devious grin since we’d begun and he was shaking with the urge to laugh as well. “Agreed.”

Thor shook his head, flinging a few rotini in separate directions. “I do not know what to do with you two sometimes. And, as stated before, I am not cleaning this up.”

“Fair enough,” I tittered as I tried to pry my wet t-shirt away from my chest. “Loki?”

My husband waved his hand in a semi-circle. A crescent of green magic flooded over the entire dining room and all the splattered mess disappeared, leaving it just as neat and clean. He flicked his fingers and the mess on he and Thor vanished.

But not mine.

“Hey,” I demanded, gesturing to me. “Forget something?”

“No,” Loki sniffed. “You started it.”

“I did not!”

Loki glanced at Thor. “You did so. I have a witness.”

Thor shrugged. “You kind of did challenge him, milady.”

I growled. “I’ll freeze you both together by your dicks if you don’t clean me up.”

Loki grinned. “But darling, you look so…”

He reached out, swiped up a glob of chocolate frosting from my cheek, and sucked it off. “…appetizing.”

“Loki, I swear to _God_.”

He chuckled. “Who is the mean little noodle now?”

Loki finally gestured to me and all the food disappeared, leaving me clean as well. I tried to stomp past him, but he snaked his arms around me and peppered my neck and cheek with kisses until I couldn’t stop laughing from the ticklish sensation. “Fine, fine, it was my fault, you jerk! Let me go so we can put the food away.”

We put away the leftovers that were salvageable and Thor bade us good night. Loki and I retired to the couch and threw on some Netflix in the background. He stretched that lanky frame out across the couch and I crawled on top, draping myself atop my serpent comfortably. I sighed as his arms slipped around me and he kissed my forehead.

“You okay?” I asked quietly, shutting my eyes to concentrate on his heartbeat.

“Yes,” he told me. I knew the cadence of his heart by now. He wasn’t lying. Good. “And I believe I am ready for the Talk.”

I could tell what he’d meant just by his inflection. “Oh. Mmkay. Lay it on me, God of Mischief.”

He rubbed the small of my back. “I would like to be alone with you, little wife, for a while longer in our home. Perhaps six months to a year. After that, I believe I would be ready to become a father. What do you think?”

“Hmm…I think that’s reasonable,” I admitted, rubbing the ticklish spot on the side of his ribs and listening to him purr. “It would give us plenty of time to study up on pregnancy and child rearing, and practice with Aria. Your DNA test showed that Odin did indeed change you into a full blooded Asgardian, so I should only have to worry about normal pregnancy complications.”

“And I shall do everything in my power to lessen your discomfort,” he said seriously. “I mean it, truly. You will have every bit of my healing magic at your disposal.”

“Thank you. I’ll get a fertility test soon, that way we’re not putting the cart before the horse or anything.” I bit my lip as worries about the state of my ice magic-infused body arose. “I…hope I can have kids. I mean, I’ve never been to a gyno that said otherwise, but…”

“Shh,” Loki whispered. “It’s alright, darling. I will be by your side always. If we were to find you were unable to carry my child, there are many other ways to expand our family. I am content to be with you, to build a life with you, no matter the method.”

Tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t put into words how he’d made me feel. It would be a crushing blow if I couldn’t conceive with him, yet he was fully prepared to accept it and help me through it if things came to that. He’d come so far. I prayed I could give him the family he deserved.

Loki somehow knew he’d moved me. Clever serpent. He kissed my brow. “Have I melted your heart, my ice queen?”

“More like poisoned me, serpent,” I said, stubbornly refusing to look at him as I wiped my eyes while he chuckled. “God, this is going to be crazy, Loki. Us, having a kid. Nine hells.”

“It will not be easy, but it will be worth it. You are already a wonderful wife. You will undoubtedly make a wonderful mother as well.”

I looked up at him then, propping my chin up on his chest. “You are a worthy husband. You’ll be an even worthier father.”

Loki smiled, his eyes a bit shinier than usual. “Thank you, my darling.”

He kissed my lips. “Just promise me one thing.”

“Name it.”

Loki waggled his eyebrows. “You will not complain when it is time for us to begin attempting the conception process. I will be quite…ravenous.”

“God help me,” I groaned. “Good thing you offered me your healing magic. I’m gonna need it.”

“Yes,” Loki hummed as one of his hands disappeared beneath layers of my clothing. “And I shall be just the god to assist you, my little wife.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Frosty have a special night on their six month anniversary of being married.

_For wives should always be lovers too_

_Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you_

_He's almost here_

_Hey, little girl, better wear something pretty_

_Something you'd wear to go to the city_

_And dim all the lights_

_Pour the wine_

_Start the music_

_Time to get ready for love..._

_-"Wives and Lovers" by Jack Jones_

**Six months later…**

I had seen many things in my time as an Avenger and the wife of an Asgardian prince, but I had to admit that drunk Loki was by far one of the most amusing things I’d ever witnessed.

Often, Loki and I celebrated milestones in our relationship on our own, but Thor suggested that we throw a traditional Asgardian celebration for our six-month anniversary of being married, since it had been a royal wedding and the marriage was still going strong. I didn’t mind big parties so long as I had someone to keep me company and be my awkwardness buffer, and I had that in spades by now, so I agreed. Thor invited the team and as many Asgardians who wanted to attend and we filled the great hall in New Asgard with great food and even better friends.

Also, very, very potent alcohol.

Thor and Valkyrie’s anniversary gift had been several barrels of rare mead they’d bought while out on a mission. Loki actually did not drink much; an occasional wine with dinner, but never consistently as he found most of the alcohol on Midgard too weak to have an effect and his palate was refined from being raised a prince. However, I’d seen how much he perked up at the idea of traditional mead made by the galaxy’s best brewers. To his credit, I’d tried it and it was delicious; just as good as the kind they’d had given to us at the actual wedding (which, by the way, Thor and Valkyrie ended up drinking dry before the end of the night, the heathens). I had two glasses and that was plenty enough to get me tipsy.

Loki, on the other hand, decided to have _five_.

Which resulted in plenty of unintentional hilarity.

Loki didn’t have many inhibitions of which to speak in the first place, so alcohol had no effect on that. Rather, Loki became extremely emphatic and loquacious while drunk. He became deeply embroiled in a conversation with Bruce over the metaphysical aspects of the soul and how to properly explain from a scientific standpoint why the afterlife, specifically, Valhalla, was real. I sat there giggling into my chocolate cake as I watched the debate from the front row seat across one of Loki’s long thighs. He also became more openly affectionate while drunk, which meant he wanted me close to him.

“—but consider how my brother was able to achieve access to his lightning without Mjolnir because Odin appeared to him, which could only have happened if there were a bridge between the living and the dead,” Loki said, cheeks pink, pupils dilated yet intensely focused on the curly-haired scientist before him.

“Thor had just gotten the pants beaten off of him by Hela,” Bruce said. “That could easily have been a hallucination from the concussion.”

“And what of Hela?” he asked. “She was in Hel, dead, and then resurrected upon Odin’s death.”

“It could have been a pocket dimension he created to imprison her,” Bruce said with a shrug. “An alternate reality, which Doctor Strange has been able to corroborate exists.”

“Ah!” Loki snapped his fingers. “You see, that is where I meant to lead you. You must ask yourself if that is simply what the afterlife is—passage of our incorporeal selves from one reality to the next. You cannot tell me with proven existence of alternate realities that it does not explain Valhalla.”

“But how does that happen if the soul has no form?” Bruce asked. “You can’t just _touch_ a soul inside yourself. Hell, there’s not really proof that souls are even real. It could just be how we choose to identify our sense of self. It’s all brain impulses.”

“Then how do you explain the sorcerer’s out-of-body experience with the Ancient One? She separated his soul from his body. He did not die and he was able to return to it.”

“She could have been an illusionist.”

“Not with Strange’s paramour having witnessed it as well. The Ancient One was nowhere to be found during the final conflict. Who, then, would have cast an illusion?”

Bruce frowned. “Kaecilius was certainly skilled enough to do so.”

“But at no point did he target the good doctor,” Loki pointed out, pausing to drain his mug. “Did he?”

“There were unknown factors involved,” Bruce conceded, crossing his arms. “But there still isn’t proof of the soul if it can’t be measured by any unit of science.”

Loki smiled. “Then I invite you to consult with my people on the subject of a Soul Forge. I believe Jane Foster dubbed it a ‘quantum field generator,’ did she not? It was able to detect the Ether when it attached itself to her soul.”

Bruce rubbed his chin and eyed Loki. “I’ll take a look and see what I find. Not saying you’ve convinced me.”

“Intelligent men follow the evidence, not the notion. I’ll convince you yet, doctor.”

“And on that note,” I said as I pushed to my feet, tottering for just a second as the world righted itself. “I think it’s time for us to head home. It’s so late it’s early.”

“My beloved is right,” Loki said, sliding an arm around my waist. He stood. Then he froze and squinted for a few seconds before seeming to find his balance. Oh, dear. Good thing Tony had hired the limo driving service. He glanced down at me and winked. “I must get her to bed.”

I shook my head. “More like get _you_ to bed. You’re properly sloshed, aren’t you?”

“Nonsense. I am in complete control of all my faculties, darling.” He sneezed. A cloud of green magic exploded outward.

And Bruce Banner turned into a frog.

Loki blinked down at the amphibian for a second and cocked his head in confusion. “That was not there before, was it?”

I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. “No, it wasn’t. Please turn him back into himself.”

Loki snapped his fingers and Bruce reappeared just as he’d been. The poor scientist’s head jerked around in panic as he acclimated to the environment again. “What the hell just happened?”

I waved my hand. “You might be better off not knowing. Come along, husband.”

We said good night to everyone and took the limo home.

Our new home.

We’d been living here for a solid month. It was a cozy three bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom home atop a hill with acres and acres of yard around as well as an iron gate fence. As promised, Tony had installed a security A.I. that kept an eye on the grounds and ran some of the tech inside of it via voice command. Decorating had been a team effort between the two of us. Loki had far more things than I did, but he asked for my input and we decided on the colors as well as the furniture together. He could conjure pretty much anything that he wanted, but I added a few touches of my own to make it feel like our place too, mostly posters and paintings.

Tony’s other housewarming gift, aside from the A.I., had been a freaking top of the line mid-sized Audi. Naturally, it wasn’t like we couldn’t get a car ourselves, but since he knew there’d be a baby on the way soon enough, he decided to take care of it instead. Mind you, he was still very Tony about it—he could have bought two cars, but he insisted the car was for my use rather than Loki’s. Tony was a very petty Iron Dad.

The limousine dropped us off in the driveway and I waved to the driver, thanking him, before heading inside, my keys jingling in one hand. By the time I succeeded in getting it in the door, I knew something was up with my tipsy husband.

Loki pushed the front door shut and then casually placed a hand on my stomach, backing me up against it. He leaned down and kissed me deeply, messily, nipping at my lips to elicit little noises from me. He pulled back slightly once I was breathing hard and clutching the front of his tunic, my words a bit slurred from pleasure. “What was that for?”

“You are particularly beautiful this night, my pet,” he said softly, stooping to kiss the side of my throat. “I confess I could hardly keep my eyes off of you all night.”

I let out a little coy laugh. “Uh, yeah, I could tell. I was sitting in your lap, remember?”

“You cannot blame me,” he hummed as he bit down over my pulse enough to make me shiver. “Having this soft, beautiful ass so tantalizingly close has an effect on me.”

I mewled as his hand slid around to cup it. “Loki, we’re drunk.”

“Mm-hmm,” he agreed as he pulled the hem of my dress up over my thighs.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to fuck me while I was drunk.”

“While you were drunk and I was sober,” he corrected with a vulpine smile. “If we are both inebriated, there is no issue of consent, is there?”

I laughed as I slid my hands down his chest. “You are such a piece of work, husband.”

“Hmm, that was not a no,” he mused as he reached inside my underwear and boldly palmed my bare flesh. “Do I have your permission, then, little wife?”

“My permission to what?” I asked, licking my lips. I just wanted to hear him say it.

Loki smirked as he caressed my ass under the panties. “To fuck you as roughly and selfishly as I wish all over the inside of our home. To drive you so insane with pleasure that you forget any word in the English language that is not my name. To make you come so many times that you will beg me for mercy.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Loki,” I lilted as I ran my fingertips across his trousers. “You did have an awful lot to drink tonight.”

I flashed him a challenging smirk. “Are you even sure you can get it up?”

Loki snarled and grabbed me roughly, dragging me across the foyer to the living room. He shoved me down over the couch cushions, ass up, kicking my legs apart. He shoved my dress up and smacked my ass hard, driving a shaking moan from my throat. “That’s it. Your sharp tongue is better served making sounds like that, my naughty little wife.”

I laughed throatily. “You didn’t answer the question, Loki.”

I heard him unlacing his trousers shortly before he struck the other side of my ass to draw another moan from me. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

Loki grabbed a fistful of my panties and simply tore them off of me entirely seconds before shoving his cock inside me.

My eyes rolled back. Oh dear God, _yes._

Loki shuddered behind me and ran his hands over my hips, squeezing. “God, I love to fuck you when you’re tight like this. All hot and wet and mine.”

He withdrew almost completely, leaving only the tip of his cock inside, sliding one hand down over the right half of my ass. “All mine.”

He slapped my ass a third time and then fucked me like a complete savage up against the couch.

I buried my face in the couch cushions to muffle the ragged scream that left my throat. Without foreplay, I was wet but not soaked, and therefore, so goddamn sensitive that I couldn’t see straight. The pleasure coiled around me so intensely that I struggled to breathe, my world upside down and inside out as he pounded his way into my cunt like he was going to remake the shape of it with his cock. He was searing hot inside me, melting me around him like a piece of ice over a furnace. I scrambled for something to hold onto, but he caught my arms and wrenched them behind me, holding my wrists together with just one big hand.

“Take it,” Loki whispered raggedly, canting his hips upward to ensure his cock struck my spot on every single succulent thrust. “Take my cock, darling. Little pet. Little wife.”

My knees weakened and my high heels started to slip against the hardwood floor, my control slipping along with it. The climax climbed its way up my spine and flooded out through my nerves in an explosion of bliss. I moaned like a wounded animal as the orgasm tore through me from head to toe, leaving me a trembling mess draped over the couch.

Loki slid his fingers into my hair and drew my head back as he flattened his chest to my spine, kissing the spot underneath my jaw. “Did that answer your question, darling?”

“Mm,” I mumbled as I tried to navigate through the cloud of euphoria enough to answer him.

He let out a low chuckle. “Clearly, I have not answered to your satisfaction.”

I found myself airborne for just a few seconds and then he set me on our sturdy, hand-carved mahogany dining table. He licked his lips as he stripped off his tunic and then stepped between my spread legs. I propped myself up on my elbows and tossed my hair back, giving him an unafraid, wanton look as he closed in on me again, those mad eyes gleaming in the dim moonlight spilling in from the window. He smirked as he angled two fingers inside me, pushing them deep, his other hand headed for the straps to my dress. He pulled the upper half down enough to expose cleavage and bent over me, decorating my bare skin with kiss marks as he pumped those slender fingers inside me brutishly fast. I raked my nails down his shoulder blades hard, listening to him groan with want, and swiveled my hips down against his hand to let the friction work its magic. It just made him even more excited.

“So eager,” he breathed, biting the soft, curved flesh just above my bra. The pain bit through the pleasure for just a second, stealing my breath. “You’re always so hungry for me, aren’t you?”

“I have to keep up with you, don’t I?” I murmured as I ran my nails over the small of his back.

“Yes,” he hissed as he brought the flat of his thumb up against my clit. “You are my equal in all things, but especially in my bed.”

“God, Loki!” I whimpered, shaken to my core to hear him refer to me as his equal. I clamped my legs down over his hips and writhed as he finished me off.

“Yes, my goddess,” Loki whispered into my sweaty skin. “Come on your husband’s fingers like the wild siren that you are.”

He stood to his full height and grabbed me again, dragging me to the edge of the table. He wrapped his fingers around my throat and pinned me to the table, his other hand between us to slip his cock into me yet again. He’d made me so much wetter now, allowing him to glide inside with little effort. I clung to the edge of the table as my spine bowed from the powerful wave of nirvana that swept over me.

“Spread your legs,” he ordered, his breathing harsh, his fingers squeezing slightly. “Spread your legs for me. Show me what’s mine.”

I obliged. Loki didn’t waste a second; he pounded his cock into me, applying just the barest pressure against my throat to remind me that he was the one in control. It felt so fucking good that tears gathered on my lashes as I lay there and endured this heavenly punishment, this hellish paradise. Too soon, my inner walls flickered in warning around his cock and he wrapped my legs around his waist, zeroing in on the spot that made me arch up from the table and clutch at his abdomen desperately.

“Ah! Loki!” I pleaded, shaking all over as he circled his hips. I clawed at his chest, his abs, whimpering as my pleas did nothing to deter him.

“There’s a good girl,” he cooed, his dark lashes framing those sea-green eyes. “Mm, take my cock, sweetheart. Come like a good girl. That’s it. Obey. Your quim is mine tonight.”

He slid his hand up and slipped two fingers inside my mouth, fucking me harder, until the harsh slap of our wet skin was even louder than my muffled moaning. I couldn’t help but bite down as I claimed another orgasm underneath him. Loki rumbled, pleased, and then removed his fingers. He leaned over me and kissed me as he slowed his thrusts for just a moment as I floated through my climax.

“Loki,” I whined in my throat as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He knew what that tone meant from me and just chuckled.

“Oh, it will not end so soon, beloved,” he said, nipping my lower lip. “You want my come inside you? You will have to earn it, little wife. You will have to fuck it out of me.”

He licked the edge of my mouth, his voice positively filthy as he gave me another languid thrust in between each word. “Every…last…drop.”

His hand slid down my belly and his fingertips brushed my clit, lightly rubbing. “My come will not fill this delicious cunt until I am satisfied. Can you satisfy me, little wife?”

“Yes,” I moaned back, locking my legs around his waist. “Mm, I want your come, Loki. I want you to come. Come inside me.”

I pushed up off the tabletop and he caught my weight automatically. I lost my fingers in his hair, gripping it hard and yanking his head back as I kissed him ferociously. Something completely animalistic rose inside me, wanting to meet his challenge.

“Wall,” I snarled into his mouth. He smirked back at me and strode backwards until his back hit the wall that connected the dining room to the hallway. I kept my arms around his neck and held myself over him, staring straight into those defiant, lustful eyes as I lifted and dropped myself onto his cock, using my legs and hips and the arch of my back to ride him completely upright.

“Yes,” he growled on every other breath, kissing me just as roughly, his hands clutching my thighs, my ass. “Fuck me, darling.”

I sped up and he groaned loudly, unable to help jutting his hips up to drive his cock deeper. I bit his lip and then his throat, my voice so hoarse with arousal that I hardly sounded like myself. “Whose cock is this, Loki?”

“Yours,” he whispered back. “It’s your cock, darling.”

“Goddamn right it is,” I breathed against his lips. “I want your come, Loki. Give it to me.”

I concentrated and flexed my inner muscles over him as I threw my weight down hard on him. He shouted something in Old Norse, clutching me to him desperately. “Come for me, Loki. Fucking do it, I want it, I want it so fucking bad, fucking come inside me, you bastard.”

Loki slid a hand into my hair and shoved my mouth to his in a soul-searing kiss just as he surrendered at long last. I convulsed in his arms and shook apart in the throes of my third orgasm, moaning in victory as his hot slick splashed inside me, filling me to the brim, then ran and dripped down my inner thighs.

“Fuck!” Loki flipped our positions and slammed me into the wall, half-crazed, and fucked me harder, faster, crying out louder with every thrust. “Fucking hell! God! Don’t stop, don’t stop, ahhh!”

I squeezed him tighter in my grip and climbed again, rolling my body into him as he sent me spinning into another orgasm and then followed me over the cliff into ecstasy again. I sobbed out his name as he came inside me again, until I was trembling and soaked in sweat and more. He propped his forearms against the wall on either side of me, panting like he’d run a marathon, his dark curls framing both his face and my own, ours lips just barely touching as we rode the high together. The afterglow blanketed me in tingling warmth and then exhaustion set in. The last thing I remembered was Loki tucking me in beside him in bed, his arms around me, whispering good night.

* * *

**Two and a half months later…**

“Loki?”

“Yes, darling?” He appeared in the doorway to the bathroom, his brows lifted quizzically.

“How good are you at making up stories?”

“Quite good, I’d say. Why?”

“Because there is no way we’re telling our kid we conceived them after a night of drunken rough sex,” I told him as I lifted the pregnancy test enough to show him it was positive. “Congrats, Loki. You’re officially a baby daddy.”

Loki stared at me, then the pregnancy test, then me again. After a few seconds, a joyous smile split his handsome face and he scooped me up with a bright laugh, twirling me around in a circle.

“My darling wife!” he exclaimed. “Truly?”

“Truly,” I laughed back, arms around his neck. “I took five of these things just to be sure.”

He brought me in close and smothered me with kisses all over my neck, my chin, my lips, which just made me laugh harder. “You are beautiful. Stunning. Ethereal.”

“Yes, I am. Now let me go, sweetheart. I have to puke real quick.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pregnant Frosty has an interesting lunch.

****

_No one calls you honey when you're sitting on a throne_

_One of these days a-comin'_

_I'm gonna take that boy's crown_

_There's a serpent in these still waters_

_Lying deep down_

_To that king, I will bow_

_At least for now_

_One of these days a-comin'_

_I'm gonna take that boy's crown_

_'Cause I am, I am a little wicked_

_-"A Little Wicked" by Valarie Broussard_

**Four months later…**

One thing I knew married couples worried about were things getting boring, and I admit that I briefly wondered if the same would happen to us.

Turned out I didn’t need to worry about a thing.

Pregnancy was weird, stressful, and cumbersome, but Loki and I navigated it as best as we could. I actually had two doctors: one of Midgard and one of Asgard, checking up on me frequently since our child would be of both bloodlines and we needed to know what to expect. We had a wee baby boy on the way, who by now was very fond of rolling to one side of my belly and karate-kicking me as well as demanding junk food and orange juice. We were still deciding on his name.

My Avengers family had showered me in love and support, beyond excited to welcome another munchkin into the group. Aria and Morgan were both particularly excited for the new baby, especially since they found out it was a boy. They’d been clamoring for more playmates in the family, the sweethearts.

Unsurprisingly, Thor had gone overboard spoiling me to death, for I was the Pixie to his Brutus, and bringing a child into the world just made him even more protective of me than usual. He either called or texted every day to check on me or to catch me up on his latest missions. Tony and Steve had pretty much insisted once I hit about three months of pregnancy that I was not on active duty and I didn’t push it, since it gave me plenty of time to prepare for the baby. Loki had asked me if I wanted him to stay home as well, but I told him to remain on active duty. The world needed him and I wasn’t about to let any innocent lives be taken when I knew he could save them.

I’d given out copies of the house key to a few of the Avengers just for redundancy reasons, but it turned out giving one to Thor meant the big doofus could drop in whenever he liked. Naturally, he often texted me first, but this particular time, I heard the front door open and then his cheerful voice calling for me. I was in the kitchen making fresh orange juice for the rambunctious boy child inside me who was demanding it, calling back, “In here!”

Thor rounded the corner and gave me his usual cheerful grin. “Milady, how are you?”

I shook my head as I pressed another orange half onto the juicer. “Fine, Thor, which you should know because you asked me at like eight o’clock in the morning. Nothing’s changed since then, you silly man. To what do I owe the honor of your presence this time?”

“I wanted to make you lunch,” he confessed as he drew near, kissing my cheek and then rubbing my belly. He then addressed it a completely sincere voice. “Hello, little prince. I hope you’re treating your mum right today.”

“Oh, I have the bruises to prove it,” I groaned. “He’s been punting my side all morning, hence the orange juice. I’m trying to convince him to leave me alone.”

He rumbled with a laugh. “He sounds as if he takes after Loki already.”

“Pfft, undoubtedly so. Well, I’m not going to say no to a meal. I’m already the size of a whale.”

Thor gave me a stern look. “You are as lovely as you ever were, if not lovelier, my lady.”

I blew a lock of hair out of my eyes and glared. “I’ve gained five pounds in two weeks.”

“And you think the extra weight has rendered you unattractive?”

I sighed. “No, I just…ugh. It’s tough feeling attractive when you look like some kind of land manatee. It’s a wonder Loki hasn’t left me. I couldn’t be further from the cute little wife he married.”

Thor’s hand made calming circles over my swollen tummy and my knees nearly went out. It felt wonderful, to the point that the baby didn’t fidget quite as much. “You think Loki’s interest in you is that shallow, do you?”

“Of course not. I’m just venting. I know he still loves me regardless of what I look like.”

“Aye.” Thor cocked his head slightly, smiling. “And he is not the only one.”

I blinked up at him then. That was new. “Huh?”

“He is not the only one who thinks you are lovely no matter what you look like.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I don’t need cheap flattery. I need a BLT, with extra B. Get moving, your highness.”

“I am not flattering you,” he said. “It is the truth, you know. I do wonder about it sometimes.”

“Wonder about what?”

“If I had not met Valkyrie first and you had not met Loki first. I think I could have fallen for you quite easily.”

My jaw unhooked from my skull and hit the floor. I stared at him, wide-eyed, flabbergasted, my entire face consumed in a scorching blush. “W-What did you just say?”

Thor lifted his brows. “Was that not obvious?”

“No!” I cried. “Thor, you can’t just drop bombs like that on me without warning.”

Thor chuckled. “You are too modest, milady.”

“And you’re crazy. If Loki knew you said that to me, he’d skin you alive and then probably upholster the couch.”

Thor shrugged a shoulder. “What is life without a little danger?”

I blushed harder. “W-Well, congratulations, I’m officially flattered. I wouldn’t have thought that for a second considering how wholesome you are.”

He stepped a bit closer and leaned down until we were level, his single blue eye glinting with a kind of light I hadn’t ever seen before. “I am not as wholesome as you think, milady.”

The blush proceeded to crawl down my neck and flush my entire body beneath my clothes. I was no stranger to harmless flirting with Thor. We were friends and sometimes we also did it just to mess with my husband because it was funny. But now we were alone and he was rubbing my tummy so nicely and I wasn’t sure what the hell had just happened. It wasn’t like I didn’t know he was a knockout. It just never mattered. Now, though…

“Is something the matter?” he murmured. “You are staring at me.”

“N-No,” I mumbled and then swallowed to wet my dry throat. “How about that lunch?”

“Of course,” he said as he raised back up to his towering height. “Would you like something else to go with it? Perhaps something…”

Thor picked up my hand and sucked the lingering droplets of juice off of my first finger. “…sweet?”

My mouth flew open to scream at him in offended outrage, but then it hit me. The look in his eye, the slow seduction, the flattery, sucking my finger, all of it just clicked at once.

“ _Goddammit_ , Loki!”

Thor’s face split into an open grin and then he started laughing. A second later, a bright green flash swallowed his form and transformed him back into the goddamn God of Mischief.

“I’m going to _kill you_ ,” I snarled, snatching my arm free. “You cheeky fuck!”

“Oh, the look on your face,” he cackled, bent over with his hands on his stomach. “My darling, you are so quaint.”

“You’re an asshole,” I growled as I faced the counter and viciously cut another orange in half. “I’m going to chop your dick off while you’re sleeping and ram it up your ass.”

“Come now,” Loki tittered. “It was a harmless bit of mischief and nothing more, my pet.”

“Harmless. Ha! I was about to have a heart attack. I can’t believe you just pranked your pregnant wife. I’m telling on you the second we get back to the compound.”

He snickered as he wrapped his arms around me from behind, rubbing my belly and kissing my cheek, his voice saccharine. “You said you wanted things to stay interesting in our marriage, darling. I thought there would be no better way to do so than to give you a bit of excitement in your day.”

“Go away,” I grumbled. “You mean old noodle.”

He chuckled in my ear. “Come on. Don’t deny it. You are a little impressed that I managed to trick you.”

I stubbornly refused to answer. He brushed my hair aside and kissed my neck softly, gently. Damn him. It was and always had been my weak spot, but being pregnant made me extremely sensitive and my mood swings were off the charts. It felt really, really good.

“Fine,” I said eventually. “I do admit your Thor impression is outstanding. You had me convinced for a while. How’d you manage to mask your magic? Usually, I can sense you.”

“I’ve been working on it for reconnaissance reasons,” Loki said. “I thought this would also be a good test of how it’s coming along. I could tell you thought something was a little bit unusual, though, so I must brush up on my impersonation skills.”

“Well, until the finger sucking, you pretty much had me fooled.” I frowned and turned to him. “Wait, do you really think Thor would’ve tried to date me if you and I and he and Val hadn’t met?”

“I do,” Loki admitted. “I know what you think of him, but my brother’s taste in women isn’t so far off from my own. He likes your spirit, your sharp tongue, and your courage. I would have had my work cut out for me trying to steal you from him.”

I pursed my lips. “What makes you think that you could?”

He linked his fingers around the small of my back. “What is the saying on Midgard? ‘Nice guys finish last?’”

“Yeah, in fiction, Loki. Not real life. Nice guys are the ones you marry and take home to meet the parents, not the bad boys.”

“Are you saying our relationship is destined to fail?”

“No,” I said, smiling slowly. “You’re just a lot nicer than you want to admit, husband.”

He scowled. “That is preposterous.”

“Uh-huh.” I picked up an orange slice and popped it into his mouth. “Keep telling yourself that, sugar woogums. Now go make me lunch like you promised.”

Loki kept his word and made me a BLT with so much bacon towering upon it that it could’ve been a Scooby Doo sandwich. Afterward, the baby seemed satisfied and gave the kicking a rest, thank God. Loki helped lower me onto our couch and then sat in the middle, massaging my feet while I propped a book open on my giant tummy. I placed two highlighters and a pencil beside me.

“Let’s see,” I said, squinting. “I think we were in the T’s. Tandri?”

Loki wrinkled his nose. “No.”

I placed an X beside the name in pencil. “Tiarvi?”

“No.”

“Tomas?”

“Mm. Not awful.”

I highlighted the name in yellow and then skipped the U section since I couldn’t find a single name I’d liked in that category. “Valdemar?”

Loki paused. “Strong name. I like it.”

I highlighted the name in green. “Vani?”

“No.”

I flipped to the next page. “Ymir?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s that.” I shut the little book and then checked the little tags sticking out on the pages. “We have roughly twelve names that we liked outright and then ten maybe’s.”

“Good. Shall we make this a committee decision?”

I tapped a finger against my chin. “It couldn’t hurt. Maybe we both pick a top three and then ask what some of the others think in case there’s a favorite.”

Loki scooped up my hand and kissed the back of it. “It shall be done, my goddess.”

I scoffed softly. “Don’t try to get back on my good side, husband.”

He winked at me. “I am already on my way there. You love me too much to hold a grudge for long.”

“Oh, is that so?” As if on cue, the front door opened and the real Thor called my name cheerfully.

Loki narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t you dare.”

I grinned wickedly. “Oh, Thor, darling! You’ll never guess what Loki just did to his poor little pregnant wife…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, it's VERY hard to find a reliable source of Old Norse names, so if any of those aren't 100% real, sorry. 
> 
> Also, Loki is Troll Level Expert. What a naughty boy he can be sometimes. xD This short chapter was just for shits and giggles. We'll have more pregnant/baby shenanigans, I promise. 
> 
> Which reminds me: if you DO want to know what it would be like if Frosty and Thor hooked up for real, check out my fic "The Eye of the Storm," which is an AU of the Under Pressure series. There's also a smutty follow up called "Tempest."


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Loki reaps what he sowed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence. I've been both busy and incredibly depressed, but I wanted to give you guys something to enjoy since it's been a while. Hope you enjoy the shenanigans.

Question: How do you prank the God of Mischief?

Answer: By being both clever and patient.

I knew it would be almost impossible by virtue of Loki being over a thousand years old, so he had an aptitude for seeing through deception. However, there was no way I’d let him get away with that Thor impression prank unscathed, so I took my time planning it.

I had always been sketching in notebooks; nothing serious, just something I did when my anxiety was high and I needed to keep my mind off of things that worried me. Over the years, I’d started to improve my skills, moving from just doodles and scribbles to small pencil portraits. I didn’t make a big deal of it, but once Loki found out about it, he encouraged me to continue the habit, as he enjoyed seeing me express myself artistically. I had progressed to the point of being able to accurately replicate figures or even people, though I had no interest in ever doing it professionally. It remained a nice hobby and a good creative outlet.

So the first thing I did was transition from sketches only to into painting.

It wasn’t easy. It took me a solid month just to get one thing on a canvas that I found even remotely good. It was nothing like working with a pencil and some excellent paper; you truly had to have vision and focus and a steady hand. I started with water-based paints and practiced weekly with the easier things, mainly objects or buildings, and then slowly worked my way towards people.

By the time I hit my eighth month of pregnancy, I’d graduated to oil paintings, and they were actually pretty damn good for a beginner. Plus, it gave me something to fill the time as I neared my delivery date and it wasn’t too strenuous on me nor the baby. I made sure to only use paints that wouldn’t be harmful to me or my son, of course, and Loki couldn’t have been prouder as he saw my talent blooming.

Which meant it was the perfect time to strike.

And timing is everything with a prank.

I waited until there was a day when I knew the date and time when Loki would return home. He’d had a meeting with the Asgardian historians, so that brought him home around seven o’clock.

Showtime.

The front door opened and shut and Loki called for me. “Darling, there is a limousine out front. Do we have company for supper tonight?”

“Yes,” I said. “Sorry, I got so wrapped in painting that I forgot to text you.”

“Ah,” he said, dropping a kiss to both me and my enormous belly. I stood by my neat little portable desk mixing paint colors and designating brushes to the cans. I had my hair back in a messy bun, my fingers smeared in the remnants of paint, which was a familiar, fun sensation. I wore a smock over my sweatpants and t-shirt. There was a huge tarp underneath the center of the floor and I always made sure to stay away from any of our furniture.

Loki took off his suit jacket and draped it on the dining room chair, lifting an eyebrow as he noticed how many colors I had open this time around. “This looks like quite the project, no?”

“Yes,” I said, beaming at him. “It’s my best work yet.”

“Oh?” he asked, loosening his tie. “What is it this time? Last time it was the Chrysler building, I think, right?”

“Right. It turned out so good that I wanted to try something more challenging.”

“I see. An animal?”

“No.”

“An ice sculpture?”

“Nope.”

“Fire?”

“Nope.”

Loki cocked his head, peering at me. “Have you decided to finally try people, then?”

“Yep,” I chirped.

“Ah. Where is the masterpiece?”

I pointed to the window facing the backyard, where my easel and its painting rested. “It’s drying over there. Give it a minute, it’s still wet. I’m prepping for the next one.”

Loki checked his watch. “Darling, perhaps you should save that for another day. It is late and if we have guests, we will need to begin cooking soon.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Thor’s voice called from the hallway. “I brought pizza with me.”

“Ah, thank you, that will—” Loki fell silent as he turned around.

He had good reason to, as Thor strolled past him wearing nothing but one of our bedsheets.

Thor padded over to me and kissed my temple, completely not noticing Loki’s shocked stare. “There’s my little artistic genius! How did our painting turn out?”

“Wonderful,” I told him warmly. “Seriously, you were the most perfect subject. I can’t thank you enough. I think I’ve definitely got a handle on the male anatomy. It was so helpful to have everything in front of me so I could paint to scale.”

“It was my absolute pleasure,” Thor said just as warmly, grabbing a peach from the dining room table and crunching into it.

“Your wife is so talented,” Thor continued as he turned to the speechless Loki, tucking one end of the sheet at his naked waist. “Really, she’s amazing.”

Loki licked his lips, his face paler than the white paint on my little table, and lifted a hand to point at his brother. “You…painted…Thor?”

“Yes, dear,” I said with the utmost casual tone.

Loki inhaled slowly through his nose. “Why is he wearing my 3,000-thread count Egyptian cotton bedsheets?”

“Well, the master bedroom has the best lighting in the house. Plus, I needed the sheets to show texture around him for contrast.”

Loki’s jaw clenched before he spoke again. “You painted a portrait of my brother _lying in our bed?”_

“Well, I couldn’t put him on the couch, silly noodle,” I fussed. “It’s not comfortable enough for the hours it takes to get it right.”

A vein popped out on Loki’s forehead. _“Hours?”_

“Loki, it’s an oil painting. You have to paint in layers, so of course I wasn’t going to have poor naked Thor stuck waiting on a couch for hours—”

 _“Naked?!”_ Loki bellowed.

I blinked at him. “Well, yes. I told you, I needed a reference for male anatomy.”

Loki marched over to the window and flipped the canvas around to find an extremely detailed, realistic oil painting of Thor reclined on our pillows in our bed, completely naked.

“Careful,” Thor chided. “Don’t touch it too soon or it’ll smear.”

“Smear?” Loki spat as he whirled around, glaring daggers at him. “Do you know what is going to smear? Your blood, all over the floor once I slit your throat, Odinson!”

“Loki,” I said patiently. “You told me to pursue my passions, did you not?”

“I did not tell you to paint a portrait of my _naked brother,_ ” he hissed. “Nor did I tell you to invite that oaf to lie on _my_ bed on _my_ sheets.”

“Our sheets,” I sniffed. “And you’re overreacting.”

“Oh, you have not even begun to see me overreact,” Loki said with a brittle laugh.

“Honestly, Loki, I don’t know how else you expect me to develop my skills without subjects.”

 _“Subjects?”_ Loki spat incredulously.

“Are you ready for me?”

Loki’s head snapped around to see Steve Rogers standing in the entrance to the dining room, also wearing nothing but a bedsheet. “Oh, evening, Loki. Didn’t know you were home yet.”

Loki’s head then creaked around slowly and he aimed a glare at me that could evaporate the Atlantic Ocean.

“Oh, yes, I forgot; Steve volunteered as well,” I said sweetly.

Loki rolled one shoulder and cracked his neck, one eyelid twitching, his breathing growing fast and erratic. “You have ten seconds to get dressed and leave this house before I redecorate the walls with your blood.”

Thor broke first.

He started giggling, his shoulders shaking, choking from the effort of holding it in. As soon as he did, it set me off, as I’d been trying to hold it for entire minutes of this charade. Loki’s anger caved into confusion. I covered my mouth with one hand as my giggles spilled out and pretty soon even Steve couldn’t help but start chuckling.

Realization dawned on my husband. He stilled and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Goddamn you, woman.”

I soared into laughter after his admission. “Oh my God, Loki! Took you long enough!”

He glared at me. “I have had a very long day.”

“His face!” Thor tittered, gasping for air through his laughter. “Priceless, my lady. Absolutely priceless.”

“The offer to kill you still stands,” Loki growled, but his threats meant nothing. I had to lean on Thor for support as I got all the laughter out of my system.

“Serves you right,” I said, wiping the tears out of my eyes. “That’s what you get for pranking your poor, innocent, pregnant wife.”

“Damn right,” Thor agreed, still chortling under his breath. “Oh, I needed that. Wonderful. We should do this again sometime.”

He slapped his brother’s shoulder cheerfully before he and Steve headed back into the guest room to get dressed. Loki took a few slow, deliberate steps towards me and bent down to my height, his blue-green eyes gleaming. “The only reason you will not be punished tonight is because you are eight months pregnant with my child. Rest assured: as soon as the opportunity presents itself, I shall exact my revenge.”

“No, you won’t,” I said, smiling smugly. “This was payback. Nothing more, nothing less. We’re even. Don’t lie; you’d have gotten me back if I had pranked you first.”

Loki scowled. “Only if you deserved it.”

“Sell it somewhere else, God of Lies. You’re just mad I finally got you.”

He grumbled something under his breath in Old Norse. “Very well. I am irritated that you managed to be so convincing. The painting is…disturbingly realistic. Did you truly paint it?”

“No, it’s just some art we had flown in from one of his fans,” I said. “That was part of what took me so long to prank you back; I had to lay the groundwork first and then find a painting that looked like I could have done it.”

“Mm, you are far more patient with your trickery than I would have guessed,” he admitted. “I concede that the operation was well-executed. Happy?”

I grinned and patted his cheek. “Ecstatic. Now help me clean up so we can eat dinner, God of Mischief.”


End file.
